More than 225 million people who want access to family planning cannot get it, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) executive director Babatunde Osotimehin said Tuesday. Osotimehin made the remarks at a news conference held to mark the appointment of American actress Ashley Judd as UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. The UNFPA is the arm of the United Nations that focuses on family planning; ensuring women can decide on pregnancy, inclouding decision to conceive and safety during and after childbirth. “The basis of all sustainable development is a woman and her family’s ability to regulate her own fertility,” Judd said. “My experience around the world is that everyone loves their family, and the family is also unfortunately often the scene of extraordinary interpersonal violence. Judd said the “solution lies in massive attitudinal shifts towards girls and women,” and can be helped by access to secondary education. “For every additional year of secondary education a girl’s income increases by 10 to 20 percent, that supports her family and actually creates increases in a country’s GDP,” she said, referring to gross domestic product. Osotimehin described other ways that girls are disadvantaged within the family, particularly in poor countries and conflict zones. “More than 300,000 women die every year giving life,” said Osotimehin. Zika virus Sixty per cent of the women who die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes are in emergency or so-called fragile situations, such as refugees and other women fleeing conflict, he said. Child and early marriage, and female genital mutilation are also concerns for girls and young women around the world, said Osotimehin. “More than 37,000 girls under the age of 18 are married each day around the world,” he said, “(and) over 130 million girls and women live with the consequences of female genital mutilation.” Access to family planning has also become an issue for families affected by the Zika virus. Osotimehin said the first advice to all women, men, girls and boys in the affected areas was to be informed about the virus and to avoid mosquito bites. However, he also said women living and visiting affected areas need to use family planning, and that men, too, should use condoms because Zika is also a sexually transmitted disease.
