KUALA LUMPUR—Opening in this city is one of the biggest periodic gatherings of men, women and youth devoted to the issues of health, especially maternal health; and allied issues like family planning and reproductive health, child health, justice and human rights, government development priorities, and funding to eradicate diseases as well as to promote overall health, education and welfare.
“Women Deliver” has been held every three years in London, Washington, D.C. and here in Kuala Lumpur. As its information materials say, it is not just about “delivery” of babies, and the many things that have to be done to make sure the road to that delivery is smooth and free of deadly obstacles; it is also about how “women deliver” for their families and societies. How, given the proper education, status and support, women could deliver for their communities through their economic activities, organizational abilities, raising children, and asserting their own identities and capabilities.
It is also a large global gathering, with more than 3,000 world leaders, policymakers and advocates representing over 150 countries. Opening Tuesday, it will feature more than 100 sessions with talks by “some of the world’s leading voices on girls’ and women’s issues.” Among these “superstars” in politics and international affairs are Melinda Gates, co-chairperson of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Chelsea Clinton, board member of the Clinton Foundation; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Foundation; and Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Razak will lead the opening ceremony.
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Major themes of the conference include:
• The economic and social benefits of investing in girls and women;
• Achieving the goal of reaching 120 million more women with voluntary family planning services by 2020;
• The need to place girls and women at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda.
Organizations like the World Bank, the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization will release major new researches and reports focusing on the benefits of investing in women and girls.
In the 2010 conference, UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon in his opening remarks observed that the conference “was critical in showing that investing in girls and women is not only the right thing to do, it is also good for the economy and good for society.” This year’s conference will thus be “an opportunity to keep up the pressure and to affirm our plans for the period ahead.”
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In many ways, Malaysia makes for an ideal place to hold a major international conference on women and girls, reproductive health and the welfare of families.
The day before the formal opening of the conference, some participants took part in field visits to various sites to learn from the country’s experiences in health promotion. Our group visited the headquarters of the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) which, as its name suggests promotes not just family planning and reproductive health but also the welfare of families, promoting the health and education of young people and encouraging better communications and relations among parents and children, especially teens.
Malaysia is one of the “success stories” in the region, with a population of 29.3 million and a stable population growth rate, with maternal mortality rates and infant mortality rates “comparable to developed countries,” said LPPKN acting director general Dr. Anjili Doski.
Asked about the challenges they faced promoting reproductive health in a majority Muslim nation, Doski said at the beginning it was rather difficult to engage with Muslim religious leaders but they decided to work closely with the clerics. “We brought them to other Muslim countries to show them how the programs are carried out there and acceptable to the population,” she said. “There hasn’t been much controversy,” she added, since officials “sold” the concept of family planning “not as controlling family size but as spacing the arrival of children.” Malaysia also had a huge “unmet need” for contraception, that is, couples wishing to limit the number of children but unable to access contraceptives for one reason or another. “It turns out that this was because many couples feared the side effects,” said Doski, adding that this was overcome by promoting the safety and efficacy of the contraceptive “mix.” The Pill is still the most popular method for family planning, followed by the condom and the increasingly popular implants and injections.
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The broad appeal of the reproductive health program and policy in Malaysia was demonstrated to us in visits to the “Kafe @ Teen,” a facility with many versions around Malaysia, where adolescents are free to visit, chat with peer counselors (young people themselves) over issues like boy-girl relations, family life and early marriage; use computers for free; and go for health consultations.
Another aspect of Malaysia’s program is the help provided childless or “under-fertile” couples at a special clinic where nurses and fertility specialists are available to counsel them on the methods to help them conceive and bear a child.
Evidence of the clinic’s success was all over the place—huge posters with photos of children born to client-couples. But while assisted fertility services may be available to singles or same-sex couples in private clinics, it is not available at the LPPKN clinic, being a government-affiliated facility. “Religion and culture still have a big influence in our policies,” admitted an LPPKN official. But, given this prevailing culture, look at how much Malaysia has done!