See stark determinants by segregating data by race or geography
But there are enormous challenges too. "There's a UN study that says it will take us 300 years to get to gender equality at the pace at which we are progressing. Maternal deaths have plateaued globally, but more alarming is that maternal mortality is on a rise in some regions. Inequalities in access to sexual and reproductive health services also persist. Gender-based violence remains rampant. We have one in five girls that are married before they are 18 years of age, and a woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth. In this day and age, a woman should not die giving life. When we bring in the race and geography, then we see stark determinants. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa are 130 times more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth than women in Europe or North America. Even within the Americas, African-descendent women and girls face higher rates of obstetric mistreatment contributing to significantly worse maternal health outcomes," said Dawn Minott.
"These inequalities sadly extend also to gender-based violence. When we break data down by age, sexuality, race and ethnicity, we see alarming trends," said Minott.
We are not reaching those who are furthest behind
A recent UNFPA report highlighted a very concerning trend. "Progress that we have seen or that we have made has largely benefited those who are already close to accessing sexual and reproductive health programmes and services. This means that the gap in terms of inequality to access is greater if we are reaching those who are already closer to service. This is why we need to move away from a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and really focus on reaching those who are furthest behind," explains Dawn of UNFPA.
To reach those who are furthest behind we need to know who it is that is left behind and how far behind they are being left. That underpins the importance of data. "If we truly want to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights we need to have national (and subnational) data systems that have the ability to inform us better. This also means that we need to make the investment in collecting data, which is disaggregated by age, ethnicity, race, disability status, sexual orientation, among other indices. We also need competencies to interpret and analyse the data and how we put it to use to inform our policies, programmes and services," she added.
Woman's control over her fertility is fundamental to all of her rights
"We are seeing rapid demographic changes that are unfortunately leading to increased population anxieties and policies aimed at controlling fertility rates. These approaches often undermine fundamental human rights and disproportionately target women's bodies. We need a fundamental shift away from controlling fertility and towards empowering individuals and respecting their reproductive rights. Humanitarian crises that the world is facing is also a major threat. It is critical for us to integrate sexual and reproductive health (SRH), and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services into all phases of humanitarian responses. Both, SRH and GBV prevention and response services must be essential, along with food and water and others," said Dawn.
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