Leadership (Abuja)
News Agency of Nigeria
3 June 2008
A Consultant to UNFPA, Professor Pauline Otti, yesterday in Abuja, said the consistent drop in girls' education had given rise to maternal mortality rate in the country.
Otti, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said there was the dire need to educate the girl-child to reduce maternal deaths.
"Many women are not aware of their reproductive rights, such as access to safe delivery, family planning and emergency obstetric care for complications," she said.
She said many women from the north suffer from curable and preventable illnesses due to lack of information.
"Every minute, a woman in the developing world dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, out of which 20 are seriously harmed by vesicle vagina fistula", she said.
Otti called for universal access to reproductive health services and universal primary education to create awareness on the reproductive rights of women.
She observed that most couples lacked the ability to plan their families or space their children.
Otti said UNFPA was assisting the government to take the battle to the vulnerable states where such information were lacking.
She added that UNFPA was also providing essential health commodities such as contraceptives, emergency obstetric care equipment and delivery kits to women in rural communities.
Otti observed that promoting gender equality would help in sustainable development and poverty eradication.
"UNFPA is gathering data from states to determine how the target population have benefited from the services and to improve on them," she said.
She said it was the desire of UNFPA to reduce maternal mortality by 2015 and also bridge the gap in gender education. (NAN)
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