Invest in women’s health to accelerate progress: WHO regional director Saima Wazed

“When families have to pay out of pocket, they will often delay or forgo much-needed care. How does this impact women? As we know, much of the burden of caring for the sick or older family members falls on women and girls,” Wazed said.

Women and girls already perform most of the unpaid work in households, spending two to five times more each day doing such work when compared to men. This highly unequal situation holds women back from fully participating in economic and political life, she underlined.

“We know we need to accelerate progress towards gender equality and health for all. We’ve made some gains, but inequalities persist,” Wazed emphasised.

She said gains have been made in three distinct areas — the proportion of women receiving antenatal care from skilled providers, those satisfied with modern methods of family planning, and those receiving skilled attendance for their deliveries.

But these gains are not being equally distributed. Inequities in these gains exist based on women’s location, educational levels and household incomes.

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Lack of autonomy

Another area where improvement is needed is that currently policies do not fully recognise a woman’s autonomy in sexual and reproductive health decisions, she said adding gender inequalities also affect some risk factors of non-communicable diseases, Wazed stated.

Women in our region also face various barriers to access to services, such as lack of a female health provider. They also face constraints of a lack of access to household resources and transport, long distances to health facilities and weak decision-making powers, she said.

“Violence against women and girls remains unacceptably pervasive. This is nothing less than a violation of their human rights, and a priority public health issue,” she pointed out.

Evidence-informed gender-responsive health policies and programmes can help reduce these gender gaps in health. Most countries in the region have adopted such national plans. However, their capacity to implement them needs strengthening, she underlined.

“I am pleased to inform that we are currently designing one of my priority programmes, specifically focusing on women and children,” Wazed stated.

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An impact on the future

Focusing on women’s health has multigenerational impacts on public health, on early childhood development, and even on societal and economic development. This is something the SDG framework also recognises, she said.

The health outcomes of the next generation are impacted even before they are born — and so we must pay a particular focus to the health of pregnant women, she said.

“Better informed mothers lead to lifelong benefits for subsequent generations. They provide better nutrition for children, encourage active lifestyles, instill cleanliness and hygiene, and other healthy habits,” Wazed said.