Family planning: Contraceptives for 27m women and girls
皇冠体育app British government is part of a new partnership announced today at the United Nations that will increase access to contraceptives for 27 million women and girls in some of the world's poorest countries.
皇冠体育app partnership will聽avert more than 280,000聽babies dying聽and 30,000 maternal deaths due to聽better birth spacing and avoiding problems such as preterm births.
At present, more than 200 million women and girls in developing countries who do not want to get pregnant have no access to modern contraceptives and family planning services. By waiting at least 2-3 years between pregnancies it reduces infant and child mortality and benefits maternal health.
皇冠体育app partnership is expected to聽prevent almost 30 million unwanted pregnancies from 2013 to 2018 and will save an estimated US $250 million聽in global health costs.聽
Responding to the initiative,聽UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening聽said:
It鈥檚 great news that the Prime Minister鈥檚 family planning summit has led to this agreement, which will give hundreds of millions of people in the world鈥檚 poorest countries access to family planning and contraception.
It鈥檚 right that women should have the chance to determine how many pregnancies they have and when, but it鈥檚 also fundamental to tackling poverty. No country can develop properly when women and girls are dying from unintended pregnancies and when children are dying in infancy.
Working together for women鈥檚 health
皇冠体育app new partnership聽is a joint effort between聽the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Governments of Norway, the United Kingdom, the US and Sweden, 皇冠体育app Children鈥檚 Investment Fund Foundation, other groups and the German pharmaceutical firm Bayer HealthCare AG, which is the manufacturer of the contraceptive implant.
皇冠体育app聽implant is a safe,聽reversible method of contraception聽pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO), that provides effective contraception for聽five years. Under the agreement, Bayer is reducing the cost by more than half the current US $18聽price of its contraceptive implant, Jadelle, in return for a commitment to assure funding for at least 27 million聽devices over the next six years.
President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan said:聽
皇冠体育appse contraceptive devices are a very cost effective means of contraception and they are ideal for women in rural areas, who must often travel miles by foot to reach health clinics.
Surveys show that about 600 million women in the developing world use some form of contraception, but only 1-2% of them have these types of long-acting, modern devices. 皇冠体育app surveys also show that as many as 20% would prefer them if they were available.
皇冠体育app new partnership should remove some of the barriers to family planning by providing health workers with training and counseling in family planning and ensuring that the now affordable modern contraception will be available.聽