Additional Investments in Family Planning would save Developing Countries More than $11 Billion a Year and save lives of Tanzanian Women
Zanzibar, Wednesday, 14 November 2012: Making voluntary family planning available to everyone in developing countries would reduce costs of maternal and newborn health care by $11.3 billion annually, according to the State of the World Population Report 2012: “By Choice, Not by Chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development”
Increased access to family planning has proven to be a sound economic investment. One third of the growth of Asian “tiger” economies is attributed to a demographic shift in which the number of income-generating adults become higher than those who depended on them for support. This shift, says the report, was a consequence of family planning and brought increased productivity, leading to economic development in the region.
The benefits of family planning are not just economic. The report shows the costs of ignoring the right to family planning include poverty, exclusion, poor health and gender inequality. Failing to meet the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents and young people in Tanzania, contributes to high rates of unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortions, HIV as well as shortened education. In the United States, the report showed that teenage motherhood reduces a girl’s chances of obtaining a high school diploma by up to 10 percent.
Family planning delivers rewards to women, families and communities. By enabling individuals to choose the number and spacing of their children, family planning has allowed women and their children, to live healthier, longer lives. If an additional 120 million new users obtained access to family planning, the report estimates 3 million fewer babies would die in their first year of life.
Commenting on the UNFPA global report, launched today simultaneously in Zanzibar and in over 130 cities, Mariam Khan, UNFPA Representative a.i. to Tanzania says, “Family planning is a human right. We are here to support the government to achieve its target of reaching family’s needs for contraceptives. If we address the unmet need for family planning, Tanzania can benefit from a demographic dividend”
The State of the World Population 2012 says that governments, civil society, health providers and communities have the responsibility to protect the right to family planning for women across the spectrum, including those who are young and unmarried
Ms. Khan further says, “While knowledge of contraception is almost universal in Tanzania, only 27 % of currently married women are using a modern method, the current level of unmet need for contraception has not changed since 2004, 25 % of currently married women have an unmet need for family planning”. Too many women come back from health facilities without receiving the information and services they need for planning their families. This shows the enormous missed opportunities to increase voluntary family planning use. She adds, “As we approach the target date for achieving the Millenium Development Goals, I call on the Tanzanian government to build on the London summit momentum, make family planning a development priority and allocate necessary budget for voluntary family planning”
However, money is just one part of the solution. To ensure that every person’s right to family planning is realized, the report also calls on government leaders to:
· Take or reinforce a rights-based approach to family panning
· Secure an emphasis on family planning in the global sustainable development agenda that will follow the Millennium Development Goals in 2015
· Ensure quality by focusing on specific excluded groups
· Raise the funds to invest fully in family planning
This year’s report is being released four months after a landmark family planning summit in London that resulted in $ 4.6 billion in commitments from donor and developing countries to expand access to voluntary family planning for an additional 120 million women in developing countries by 2020.
The report also pulls together all the latest research that documents the positive effect family planning has on health, educational attainment and poverty reduction.
For more information or interview requests, please contact: Communications Analyst Sawiche Wamunza, , wamunza@unfpa.org
UNFPA works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
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Usia Nkhoma Ledama
National Information Officer
UN Information Centre
6th floor, International House
Garden Avenue/Shaban Robert St
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mobile:
email; usia.nkhoma-ledama@unic.org
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