The World Bank and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday that family planning and other reproductive health programs vital to poor women had fallen off the development radar of many low-income and donor country governments and international aid agencies.

These programs, they said in a statement released on the eve of the 20th anniversary of World Population Day, were vital to boost women's economic and social well-being, especially during the current global economic crisis, and to reduce endemic poverty and high numbers of maternal and infant deaths.

"The global economic downturn has taken a wrecking ball to growth and development in poor countries worldwide, and has become a development emergency for women because invariably they're the first to suffer when economic crises strike," said Joy Phumaphi, vice president for Human Development at the World Bank, and former Health Minister for Botswana.

"Even before this crisis began, family planning and reproductive health had fallen off the radar of low-income countries, aid donors, and development agencies -- with the result that we've lost precious time in helping women get access to these vital health services, and helping countries get on a faster track to reducing poverty," he said.

Delivering a keynote address at the World Bank to mark the World Population Day, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid said that investing in women was a smart choice during a time of global economic crisis and cutbacks in health budgets worldwide.

"The sad and shocking truth is that maternal mortality represents the largest health inequity in the world, and of all the Millennium Development Goals, MDG 5 to improve maternal heal this lagging the farthest behind," he said. "And with the financial crisis and the reduction in budgets for health, this goal will be even harder to realize. It is not a lack of knowledge that is hindering progress; it is a lack of political will to protect the health and rights of women."

New preliminary World Bank figures show that while official global development aid for health soared from 2.9 billion dollars in 1995 to 14.1 billion dollars in 2007, roughly a five-fold increase in 12 years, aid for population and reproductive health had increased much more modestly during the same period, from 901 million dollars in 1995 to 1.9 billion dollars in 2007.

In the 35 highest-fertility countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, aid for women's family planning and reproductive programs started at 150 million dollars in 1995 and increased to 432 million dollars in 2007, while overall aid for health in these35 countries went from 915 million dollars in 1995 to 4.9 billion dollars in 2007.

Support for population and reproductive health programs has significantly declined as a percentage of overall health aid, from about 30 percent in 1994 to 12 percent in 2008.

Source: Xinhua