Nairobi health goals for girls and women

Many of them also fall pregnant when they are not ready nor desire pregnancy. There are numerous obstacles that prevent them from leading full and fulfilled lives.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental to people’s health and survival, to economic development and to the well-being of humanity.

Several decades of research have shown that investment in sexual and reproductive health produces measurable benefits. Governments have made major commitments to getting this right. But progress is stymied because of weak political commitment, inadequate resources, persistent discrimination against women and girls and an unwillingness to openly and comprehensively address issues related to sexuality.

This was the conclusion of a report produced last year by the global health research and policy organisation, Guttmacher Institute, and the academic journal, The Lanceton, on sexual and reproductive health.

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A fresh effort is underway to close these persistent gaps. These were issues discussed at a special summit held in Nairobi, and convened by the United Nations Population Fund along with the governments of Kenya and Denmark.

Among those who attended were heads of state, ministers, parliamentarians, thought leaders, technical experts, civil society organisations, grassroots organisations, and business and community leaders.

The Nairobi Summit followed the pledge made 25 years ago at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994. These included reducing maternal deaths, making sure women had access to family planning and protecting them from gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation and child marriage.

Most of the 179 countries that signed up for the Cairo Programme of Action have made some progress regarding these pledges. For example, there has been a 25% increase in the use of contraceptives. But millions of women still don’t have access to contraception, and women and girls still face gender-based violence in vast numbers.

The aim of the summit is to get governments to commit to speeding up the progress, and adhering to the Cairo goals. This will include attempting to secure pledges worth $264 bn (R3 906,88 trillion). This is the amount the UN Population Fund and some partners calculated would be needed to achieve meaningful results in three key areas by 2030 which would lead to:

• End preventable maternal deaths.

• End the unmet need for modern family planning, and address gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation and child marriage.

But raising the money will be only be one part of meeting the challenge. The other will be agreeing on a plan to deploy the money effectively to achieve meaningful outcomes. In my view, this will require three key ingredients: governments will have to pledge domestic funding for these programmes; local actors will have to play an integral part in delivering on advocacy, policy and research; and the interventions will have to be driven through real partnerships.

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The Roadmap

The financing needs are set out in a costing handbook which was released at the conference. This outlines what is needed, and how the money will be allocated over the next 10 years. Part of the summit outcomes is to make a pitch for commitments to raise the $264bn needed by 2030. But even if the money is raised, this amount may not not achieve the transformation we seek.

In addition to the money, three critical points must carefully be considered in the implementation of the resolutions and commitments coming out of the Nairobi Summit.

Working together

To achieve these noble goals, we must work together; we must strengthen local capacities that are critical to making a real difference on the ground; and we must engage local leadership to ensure there are domestic investments and political commitments to this agenda. Raising $264 billion over the next 12 years is a small price to achieve such transformative change in the lives of women and girls.

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