On 11 July, 2012 United Nations celebrated the World Population Day.
This year the event is dedicated to the universal access to
reproductive health services. This theme seems particularly significant after last October, the world hit the
7 billion mark. Urbanization, migration, climate change, sustainable development are phenomenons strictly related and worsen by demographic growth.
In the same day in London the British Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought together representatives from governments, the private sector, donors and civil society groups who pledged to halve the number of women in developing countries who want, but lack access to, modern contraception at the Family Planning Summit.
The impact of valuable family planning policies is manifold:
- Contraceptives are one of the best investments a country can make in its future.
- Each US dollar spent on family planning can save governments up to 6 dollars on health, housing, water, and other public services.
- Giving women and girls access to contraceptives is transformational – families become healthier, wealthier, and better educated.
- Almost a quarter of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa drop out of school because of unintended pregnancies.
- Even providing girls with just one extra year of education beyond the average boosts their eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent.xiv
- When women earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of their earnings into their families, compared to the mere 30 to 40 percent typically invested by men
Adding it Up: Costs and Benefits of Contraceptive Services, Estimates for 2012. Guttmacher Institute, 2012
Global patterns of mortality in young people: a systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet, 2009
Achieving the MDGs: The Contribution of fulfilling the unmet need for family planning USAID, 2006.
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women: Women Deliver, 2010
DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung): MDG 5. DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung)
Trends in Maternal Mortality 1990-2010,