* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
For every additional dollar that is invested in preventing an unintended pregnancy, nearly $1.50 is saved in pregnancy-related care
Here is an unacceptable fact: there are 225 million women living in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy but are not using modern contraception. That is equivalent to the entire population of Brazil. And the consequences are huge -- 74 million unintended pregnancies, 28 million unplanned births and 20 million unsafe abortions per year.
We can and must do better. During the past decade, there has been significant progress in improving the health and well-being of women worldwide. Today more women than ever before are using modern contraception to plan their pregnancies. More women give birth in health facilities with professional medical care. And fewer people are dying from AIDS. These results are thanks to the global community’s efforts to bring essential drugs and services to the poorest regions of the world.
Yet, these gains have barely kept pace with rapidly growing populations. If we don’t speed up the pace of investment in sexual and reproductive health, we risk losing the gains we have made. If investments stay at current levels, each year we will lose almost 200,000 women and more than 2 million newborns whose lives could have been saved.
The further behind we get, the harder it will be to catch up. That’s why it is absolutely necessary that the global community—national governments and international donors—acts quickly to ramp up investments in sexual and reproductive health services.
The benefits are well-known. Women and girls who are able to plan their births and stay healthy are better able to complete their education, participate more fully and productively in the labor force, accumulate higher household savings, and raise healthier and better educated children. These family-level benefits accrue at the community and national levels, spurring economic development and growth.
The Guttmacher Institute has done the math: Investing $25 per year per woman in the developing world would provide a basic package of essential reproductive health services to protect her health and that of her newborn. These services include contraception, pregnancy, delivery and newborn-related care, care for pregnant women living with HIV, and treatment for other sexually transmitted infections.
The total required investment amounts to $39.2 billion annually, more than double current spending. But the price-tag should not be a deal-breaker. On the contrary, it should be a priority. Investing in sexual and reproductive health has one of the highest rates of return in international development. And, not all of this will come from donors; the bulk will come from government budgets and from the pockets of women themselves who receive the services.
In fact, investments in modern contraceptive services actually save money: For every additional dollar that is invested in preventing an unintended pregnancy, nearly $1.50 is saved in pregnancy-related care. Additional savings accrue across all sectors, from healthcare to education to employment.
Saving money is great, but saving and improving lives is even better. By satisfying all unmet need for reproductive health care, the number of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths would plummet by nearly 70%, newborn deaths would drop by 77%, and there would be a virtual elimination of new HIV infections in newborns.
Without adequate resources and commitment, the disparities in access to services that already exist between poorer and better-off women—and between poorer and wealthier countries—will grow even wider. And we will squander an opportunity to save lives, improve the health and well-being of women and families, and build stronger, wealthier nations.
As governments and international agencies consider development goals for 2015 and beyond, they should prioritize universal access to sexual and reproductive health services: these investments are a cornerstone of sustainable development, and every woman’s right.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is the executive director of United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA)
Ann M. Starrs is the president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute
