Contraception, the Missing Link in the Millennium Development Goals

Inter Press Service News Agency Contraception, the Missing Link in the Millennium Development Goals

Marcela Valente

A woman who only has children if and when she wants to will be better able to work and to cover her family's needs in terms of food, education and health care.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6 (IPS) - But the necessary prerequisite for this means of escaping poverty has been left off the international community's agenda, according to Steven Sinding, director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

Sinding was in Rio de Janeiro last week to participate in the Symposium on the Millennium Development Goals and Sexual and Reproductive Health in Latin America and the Caribbean, sponsored by the Western Hemisphere regional branch of the IPPF.

By adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, the member states of the United Nations pledged to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; and develop a global partnership for development, all by the year 2015.

The quantitative targets and indicators encompassed by the goals specifically incorporate the recommendations from a series of major U.N. conferences held in the 1990s, addressing themes like population, childhood, women, the environment, poverty and human rights.

But organisations that work in the field of sexual and reproductive health have complained that commitments associated with this particular issue, reached through arduous efforts to achieve consensus at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995), were essentially lost along the way - and not by accident.

Speaking at the opening session of the symposium, Sinding said that the U.N. considered the subject of sexual and reproductive health to be a "dangerous" one, likely to meet with opposition.

"They told us to wait," he explained, claiming that things would eventually be worked out. But since that time, said Sinding, nothing has been done to rectify the matter, and in the meantime, the issue of sexual and reproductive health is losing both visibility and urgently needed financial resources.

And if those who work in this field continue to politely wait for action, they will be pushed aside to the point of disappearing, Sinding warned the symposium participants, who included representatives of organisations devoted to issues like AIDS, women's rights, universal access to contraception, and the pro-choice movement.

Later, in an interview with IPS, Sinding explained that exclusion from the MDGs made access to funding more difficult. "If we're not on the list, we're not a priority," he said.

His aim is to work towards the inclusion of a ninth goal that specifically targets universal access to contraception, one of the main focuses of the resolutions adopted at the population conference in Cairo.

Although some U.N. officials and governments would prefer the list of MDGs to be a closed subject, he believes there is still a chance for changes to be made. His organisation, along with others around the world devoted to the same objectives, are working to build a movement to promote this new goal, and they plan to present their demand at the Millennium Summit review scheduled for 2005.

Sinding pointed out that aid for the fight against HIV/AIDS has grown by 300 percent in the last three years, since the inclusion of this issue in the MDGs, while funding for family planning has fallen "dramatically" over the same period.

For his part, Ralph Hakkert of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) told the symposium that in Latin America, the population is growing faster among the poor, and not as a result of voluntary decisions, but rather because of a lack of information and other limitations, which primarily affect women.

Despite this reality, however, he noted that there is resistance when it comes to including reproductive health among the millennium goals.

While the proposal for a ninth goal could be favourably received, he said, it would open the door to countless unsatisfied demands from civil society.

"Sexual and reproductive health is not the only hole in the millennium goals," he said. "There are other issues that are not addressed, like employment and social security. And if we reopen the debate, the list would be endless."

In his opinion, a more effective strategy would be to work for the inclusion of family planning issues within an already existing goal.

This strategy was challenged by representatives of women's groups, however, who noted that there are programmes to fight poverty in their countries that actually limit women's autonomy, instead of empowering them and recognising their reproductive rights.

Sinding also voiced his disagreement with Hakkert's views. As far as he is concerned, sexual and reproductive health is in a completely different category from employment, given that it was a key theme at the population conference, and the related recommendations adopted had the consensus of 149 U.N. member countries.

Nevertheless, the issue was excluded from the new agenda set by the MDGs.

The civil society organisations participating in the symposium held largely similar stances in most respects, but they differed with regard to their positions on the best strategy to follow.

Some are determined to fight for the establishment of a ninth goal, while others believe their efforts would be better spent on demanding the fulfilment of the commitments established through already existing instruments.

Susana Chiarotti of the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women's Rights warned of the danger that the millennium goals could be used by the states "as an excuse to avoid fulfilling the commitments they have taken on at the various international conferences of the 1990s," which are much more wide-ranging.

"If they had been working towards fulfilling these commitments, there would have been no need for the MDGs. Now, instead of fighting to be included on a limited agenda, we should be demanding that the states live up to their previous commitments, without allowing them to choose between the MDGs or the conference recommendations," she said.

Magali Caram of Profamilia, a Puerto Rican family planning association, also expressed concern over "playing into the hands of the governments" by pushing for a ninth millennium goal, although she said she would not oppose such a proposal outright if it could provide better visibility for the issue of sexual and reproductive rights.

Caram told IPS that during the 1990s, the world's governments took on a wide range of important commitments, but they have neither fulfilled them nor given them the necessary priority when formulating policies, designing programmes and allotting resources.

Then the MDGs came along, she said, and issues that are vital to women were subsumed under extremely general goals.

"Maternal health is important, but in the millennium goals, our role is limited to that of mothers, instead of people with rights," she said.

As a result, while a ninth goal that gives greater visibility to sexual and reproductive health would not be a bad thing, it would be detrimental if the agreements already reached were overshadowed by the debate over the inclusion of a new goal, and if the ambitious commitments established in the 1990s were replaced by the single objective of access to contraception, which could imply a step backwards, said Caram. (END/2004)