UNFPA backs the HANDtoHAND Pledge

On 20 September, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid called on world leaders to increase funding for reproductive health, including family planning, and place women’s health at the centre of their national plans.

“Now is the time to move from speech lines to budget lines,” said Ms. Obaid at an event during the MDG Summit which started today at the United Nations. “Women deliver for their families, communities and nations, and now it is time to deliver for women. No woman should die giving life. There are still 1,000 women who die needlessly every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. There are still 215 million women with an unmet need for family planning and 2 million women suffering from the devastating childbirth injury of obstetric fistula. ”

“We are working with WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS and the World Bank to reduce high rates of maternal and newborn deaths in high priority countries,” said Ms. Obaid. “Together with the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, UNFPA aims to expand family planning to 100 million women by 2015. We are supporting national counterparts to train and deploy midwives, and also to prevent and treat fistula.”

To read the full press release, please click here.

Category: Featured