African Leaders Should Invest More Resources to Eliminate Fistula

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — African leaders should build on the agreement and momentum of the recent World Summit to ensure that reproductive health is integrated in national reports on the Millennium Development Goals, poverty reduction strategies as well as national plans and budgets, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

Speaking at the opening session of a three-day regional conference on the elimination of obstetric fistula in Africa, Ms. Obaid said that during the September Summit, many African leaders committed themselves to achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015. “Now that the Summit is over, we must ensure that some of the additional resources being devoted to Africa through official development assistance are targeted at safe motherhood, including fistula,” she said.

Fistula currently affects more than 2 million women worldwide, many of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 new cases occur every year. Women with fistula are often young, poor, uneducated and from remote regions. One of the many reasons fistula exists is because poor women have less access to reproductive health services, such as emergency obstetric care.

Ms. Obaid commended the Government of South Africa for convening the meeting – an indication, she said, of the country’s commitment and the leadership role it can play within the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development to harness greater political and financial support to prevent and treat fistula.

Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa’s Minister of Health, described the meeting as an important opportunity to address fistula in Africa and as a platform to prepare for an upcoming conference on reproductive health that will be held in Maputo, Mozambique. She pledged her Government’s continued support to prevent and treat fistula in Africa.

Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang reviewed South Africa’s efforts towards improved maternal health-care, including the building and staffing of more than 1,500 clinics over 11 years in historically disadvantaged areas.

“The health of our women should not be compromised by their status or location,” she said. “We must continue to promote gender equality in all its dimensions and to improve access to health services for pregnant women.”

In an earlier message, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo, the Africa Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), decried the high maternal death rates in the continent. Nearly 50 per cent of such deaths worldwide occur in Africa. For each woman who dies, 20 more women suffer disabilities due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications.

“The continued existence of fistula is evidence of the failure of health-care systems to provide a continuum of vital maternal health care, and the failure of governments to provide girls with education and economic opportunities so that they do not become mothers during their childhood,” he said.

Background

Obstetric fistula is one of the most devastating of all pregnancy-related disabilities. It usually occurs when a young woman has a difficult, obstructed labour that lasts several days and cannot access a Caesarean section in time. The baby usually dies and the woman is left with extensive tissue damage to her birth canal that renders her incontinent. The results are life shattering: women with fistula are perceived as ‘unclean’ and, thus, shunned by their husbands, family and community.

UNFPA is currently leading a global Campaign to End Fistula, involving a wide range of partners. Launched in 2003, the Campaign focuses on three main areas: preventing fistula from occurring, treating women who are affected and supporting women after surgery so that they can be successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. The Campaign takes a comprehensive approach to ending fistula by emphasising awareness about the root causes at all levels, determining needs and supporting the development and implementation of national strategies. It currently supports more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Arab region.

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

Contact Information:

South Africa: George Ngwa, tel. +27 72 617 1032, ngwa@unfpa.org

New York: Omar Gharzeddine, tel. +1 212-297-5028, gharzeddine@unfpa.org; Micol Zarb, tel. +1 212-297-5042, zarb@unfpa.org