What can be Done to Improve Women's Health Region?

ABSTRACT

Women constitute a key link in the chain of development actions worldwide. For women to be able to fulfi ll their role in society; however; they need to be in a state of adequate physical; mental and social well-being. Unfortunately; the huge majority of African women are still unaware of their fundamental rights to health; education and life; and suffer from ill-health and sub-standard living condition. Global leaders; including African ministers of health; have adopted a number of resolutions to improve women's health. However; the health situation of women in Africa continues to be poor; with 57of women in the African Region lacking access to assistance by qualified staff during childbirth; one out of twenty-six women being at risk of dying from birth-related complications; to mention a couple of significant indicators. Given that the issues of women's health are complex; this paper calls for multisectoral and concerted action involving the public and private sectors; nongovernmental organizations; communities and families. For this; it proposes that countries set up a multidisciplinary technical team composed of experts in health; gender and human rights to identify priority interventions for eff ective scaling up and resource mobilization for women's health at national level. Among the ways forward proposed in the paper are scaling up women's health-related interventions; using the primary health care approach in line with the Ouagadougou Declaration to effectively deliver women's health interventions; strengthening the capacity of women; families and communities to prevent diseases; and empowering them economically to enable them to take appropriate decisions related to their health and sexuality