London 8 July 2008 – global efforts to address poverty, accelerate development and improve health, particularly in Africa, have been dealt a blow by the failure of the G8 to fulfill its financial commitments.
The failure to increase financial commitment to achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, is a significant and tragic missed opportunity, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) warns today.
Dr. Gill Greer, Director General of IPPF, said, “It is important that the G8 has recognized the critical importance of sexual and reproductive health to achieving MDGs 4 and 5 and to global development; yet at least another US$10 billion is required.
If financial and political commitments do not match the rhetoric we risk failing millions of women, men and young people.
MDGs 4 and 5 have seen least progress at the half way point of the MDG process and without new funding commitments it is very unlikely that they will be achieved by 2015.
Sexual and reproductive ill-health accounts for 30 per cent of the worldwide burden of illness and premature death for women; pregnancy related health complications are the single biggest killer of girls aged 15 – 19 years in developing countries.
Without renewed efforts to meet the global unmet need for sexual reproductive health, including family planning and contraception, we cannot hope to improve the lives of the tens-of-millions of women, men and young people who want it.”
IPPF congratulates the Government of Japan for its commitment to global development, particularly in Africa, in the build-up to the G8 and at the meeting itself.
Japan’s concept of human security that underpins its leadership of the G8 has health and human rights at its core, and has stressed the need for greater emphasis on addressing sexual and reproductive health as part of global health.
This includes emphasizing the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents and other vulnerable groups, and the intimate links between sexual and reproductive health and HIV.
A failure to address MDGs 4 and 5 will not only undermine all other progress made towards the other MDGs, but it sacrifices the rights of women, men and young people to access health care critical to their wellbeing.
Dr. Greer concluded, “Despite opposition from the United States, the resolve of the governments of Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom to see sexual and reproductive health properly represented in the G8 outcome documents will be critical to making progress on MDGs 4 and 5, but only if our actions match our words.
For further information, contact
in London, Yuri Nakamura
(Tel: +44-(0)20-7939-8220)
in Hokkaido, Makoto Yaguchi (Mobile: +81(0)90-9096-7045)