Tashkent, 22 December 2015 – UN Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a press conference to launch UNFPA’s flagship annual report, State of the World Population 2015.
The Report is being produced annually by UNFPA for over ten years. In these years, the reports have focused on a variety of issues related to population and development. The 2015 Report is entitled “Shelter from the Storm: a Transformative Agenda for Women and Girls in a crisis-prone World” and it highlights the special needs of women and girls in emergencies.
“The health and rights of women and adolescents should not be treated like an afterthought in humanitarian response,” says UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin. “For the pregnant woman who is about to deliver, or the adolescent girl who survived violence, life-saving services are as vital as water, food and shelter.”
According to UNFPA Report, today around 59.5 million people have been displaced as a result of conflict—the largest number since the end of the Second World War. More than 100 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and about 26 million are women and adolescent girls in their childbearing years. Three in five maternal deaths occur in situations like natural disasters or conflicts, and 507 women die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth in fragile states.
UNFPA Representative in Uzbekistan Ms. Mieko Yabuta says that the Report calls for a transformative humanitarian agenda for women and girls that shifts the balance from reaction and response towards preparedness, risk reduction and building resilience. “This requires equitable, inclusive development that protects rights, including sexual and reproductive rights. This also requires increased attention by international community, and increased funding.” – she said.Without the usual protection of family and community, women and adolescents are more vulnerable to gender-based violence, unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, like HIV. Basic needs for safe childbirth, family planning and reproductive health care are rarely met when women and adolescents become untethered from the lifeline of health systems.
The Fund is working worldwide to ensure that women have access to safe delivery services, regardless of circumstances. In recent years, the Fund has provided life-saving care and services to over 35 million women and adolescent girls in 38 crisis-affected countries.
In Uzbekistan, UNFPA is leading the joint UN efforts in ensuring that sexual and reproductive health and rights needs are in focus in times of crisis. Considering the high risk of earthquakes in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, it is important to ensure that appropriate preparedness mechanisms are in place and that UNFPA works in collaboration with other development partners and government institutions to provide coordinated response.
To this end, UNFPA is supporting training of healthcare professionals in the country on Minimum Initial Service Package – set of necessary actions and measures to be undertaken in the area of reproductive health and prevention of gender-based violence during emergencies. Furthermore, UNFPA in Uzbekistan provides substantive input into the work of Inter-Agency Working Group (IWAG) for the region of Eastern Europe and CIS, aimed at further improving coordination of health sector response in the context of sexual and reproductive health and better preparedness of the region’s countries.
The Report is accessible here: www.unfpa.org/swp/
