Women's health in the WHO African region: a call for action.
24 June 2008
World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa
Background
- By virtue of their multiple roles, women constitute a key link in the chain of development actions worldwide. Women not only account for over half of the population of countries in general, but they also invest their energy in families and communities, thus contributing to the wealth of nations.
- Women need to be in a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being to be able to carry out their numerous responsibilities. Against this background, during the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-1985) and at various international meetings on population and development,1 Member States of the United Nations agreed that women’s health and their active participation in development actions were closely linked.
- Unfortunately, the huge majority of African women are still unaware of their fundamental rights to health, education and life as part of the fundamental rights they gained several decades ago.2 They continue to suffer from sociocultural discrimination, harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM), gender-based violence, food taboos, forced marriages, early and unwanted pregnancies, all of which are very harmful to their health.
- These problems, coupled with the weakness of health systems, are at the root of the high maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa where 1 out of every 26 women is at risk of dying during childbirth compared to 1 woman out of every 7300 in developed countries. Furthermore, of the 14 countries worldwide where maternal mortality is above 1000 per 100 000 live births, 13 are in sub-Saharan Africa.3
- As maternal mortality is one of Africa’s most tragic health problems, countries and their development partners made a commitment at the Millennium Summit (2000) to reduce this mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015 (MDG5). Although this required a 5.5% annual average reduction of maternal mortality in order to achieve MDG5, the actual annual reduction in sub-Saharan Africa4 between 1990 and 2005 was only 0.1%.
- In addition, the Regional Committee adopted a number of resolutions on women’s health and their contribution to development.5 These resolutions addressed the issue of women’s health throughout their life cycle as well as gender and human rights issues in order to achieve rapid and long-lasting impacts in the African Region.
- Considering the gravity of the health situation of African women, the WHO Director-General has made women’s health one of the top priorities for the Organization.6In addition, the 2008 Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Health Care and Health Systems in Africa focused on strengthening health systems to address maternal health, women’s health and related issues using the primary health care approach.
- The present document reports on progress made and proposes actions to improve women’s health in the African Region.
Footnotes:
- First World Conference on Women, Mexico City, Mexico, 8 March 1975; World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, Austria, 14–25 June 1993; World Summit on Social Development, Copenhagen, Denmark, 6–12 March 1995; International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, Egypt, 10 December 1994; Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 4–15 September 1995; United Nations Millennium Summit, New York, USA, 6–8 September 2000.
- United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 22, 10 December 1948; United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 18 December 1979.
- Maternal mortality in 2005, estimates developed by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank.
- Maternal mortality in 2005, estimates developed by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank.
- WHO Regional Committee resolutions AFR/RC39/R9: Traditional practices affecting women and children, 1989; AFR/RC40/R2: Accelerating the improvement of maternal and child health, 1990; AFR/RC43/R6: Women, health and development, 1993; AFR/RC44/R11: Regional strategy for accelerated reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality in the African Region, 1994; AFR/RC47/R4: Promotion of the participation of women in health and development, 1997; AFR/RC53/R4: Women's health: a strategy for the African Region, 2003; AFR/RC54/R2: Repositioning family planning in reproductive health services: A framework for accelerated action, 2005–2014, 2004; AFR/RC54/R9: Road map for accelerating the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals relating to maternal and newborn health in Africa, 2004.
- Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General-elect, at the First Special Session of the World Health Assembly, Geneva, 9 November 2006.
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