In the year 2000, at the historic moment we called the Millennium, the UN undertook an ambitious programme. All of the UN member states agreed to a challenge to meet the basic needs of the globe within 15 years. They narrowed this vision of the world’s wellbeing to a reduction of poverty, hunger and disease, increased education overall, increased opportunities for women, and increased survival for children and women.

The plan was designed to be affordable, measurable and doable, with a target date of 2015 – both visionary and pragmatic. In the work of drafting these goals, it became clear that not only was there considerable overlap between them, but that women play a very considerable role in development. Much of the planned progress was dependent on the status of women.

Women make up over half the world’s population. In many parts of the world they grow and harvest the food. They raise children, tend to the ill and aged as primary carers. Yet two thirds of the world’s uneducated children are girls, and two thirds of the world’s poorest people are female.

The future depends on children. The condition of children is inextricably connected to the status of women. Not surprisingly, the status of women is a reliable indicator of the wellbeing of a country. Their disempowerment reduces the ability of a country to progress. In many parts of the world where they cannot participate in public life, they are an untapped source of enterprise and creativity, and their absence shows.

Goal 3 of the Millennium goals is to promote gender equality and empower women. Goal 4 is to reduce child mortality. Goal 5 is to improve maternal health. UNICEF, in its 2009 report, focuses on the health of newborns and their mothers. Although many developing countries have made good progress in improving child survival rates,

still millions of children die before the age of five from preventable causes. A child born in a developing country is over 13 times more likely to die in the first five years of life than one in a developed country.

In the past decade, concerted intervention has shown improved survival rates for young children, but sadly this progress has definitely not been true for mothers in the developing world. Having a child is among the most serious health risks for women. Every year more than half a million women die as a result of pregnancy or complications in childbirth. They are 300 times more likely to die during pregnancy or in childbirth than if they lived in rich countries. What is required is prenatal care by skilled attendants, adequate nutrition and postpartum care.

Ensuring access to reproductive health and family planning services for all could help avert up to 35 percent of maternal deaths. Globally, some 200 million women and men who say they would like to use family planning do not have adequate access to good quality contraception.

Since the election of President Obama, US policy has completely changed. Access to safe and effective family planning is one of the best methods to prevent unintended pregnancies. Preident Obama plans to restore US funding to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, an agency whose support was cut back by the previous administration because it promoted family planning over the “abstinence only” agenda. Further, Obama has lifted the “global gag rule” which refused US money to any organization that provides or even discusses abortion.

The difference in pregnancy risk between women in developing countries and the industrial world is a silent tragedy and often termed the greatest health divide in the world. It is a moral outrage that millions die when they could be saved by proven cost-effective interventions. Saving these lives is the smart thing to do. It is also an issue of human rights and justice. If readers would like to help, they can take a look at the UNFPA and UNICEF websites: www.unfpa.org and www.unicef.org.

Phyllis Ehrenfeld is President of the National Service Conference of the American Ethical Union and AEU representative to the UN.
Dr Sylvain Ehrenfeld is International Humanist and Ethical Union representative to the UN.