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12 October 2005
State of the World Population 2005 - launched today
The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals
Today the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched The State of the World Population 2005 report. The report reiterates the importance of equal rights for men and women. It argues, and presents evidence to show, that gender equality and improved reproductive health and rights are essential to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
The time to act is now. More than 1.7 billion women worldwide are in their reproductive years. The largest generation of adolescents in global history are entering their reproductive and productive years. Investment now can yield long term, intergenerational, pay offs. The report presents compelling data to illustrate the human cost and development consequences of ignoring these issues. For example:
- Worldwide, reproductive conditions are the leading cause of ill health and death in women aged 15 to 44.
- Every year of a woman’s education leads to a 5 to 10 per cent lower death rate for her children under the age of five.
- Every year girls and women bear the burden of 76 million unintended pregnancies. Many cannot access contraception.
- There are serious condom shortages – particularly in those countries hardest hit by the HIV pandemic. In 2003 donor support paid for six condoms per year for each man in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Gender based violence kills and harms as many women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44 as cancer.
In 1994, at the International Conference for Population and Development, 179 governments pledged to ensure universal access to reproductive health by 2015. The outcome from the recent Millennium Review Summit reaffirms this promise.
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