Invest in women's health: UN head

Investing in the health of women pays off, UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon said Monday in calling on governments to speed up progress on women's and children's health by 2015.

"Invest in women — it pays," he said in a speech posted online to the Women Deliver conference on women's health in Washington "This is one of the best investments we can make for this and future generations."

Relatively simple practices and technologies save lives, he said. Blood tests, consultation with a doctor and qualified help at the birth, basic antibiotics, blood transfusions and a safe operating room can almost eliminate the risk of death, he told delegates.

Ban recalled his own birth in a home in rural Korea, where as a child he wondered why pregnant women would gaze at their shoes before going into the delivery room. His mother told him it's because they are wondering if they will step into those shoes again.

In 2000, world leaders drafted a plan known as the Millennium Development Goals that aimed to meet specific targets in fighting hunger and poverty, and improving health care and education by 2015.

At the three-day conference in Washington, 3,500 conference participants from 140 countries will look at progress that has been made in improving global maternal health, and what work remains.

Women Deliver says it works globally to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling Millennium Development Goal No. 5 — to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health.

Gates Foundation commits $1.5B

Conference participants were expected to include the former presidents of Chile and Ireland, Michele Bachelet and Mary Robinson, as well as actress and women's advocate Ashley Judd.

At the conference Monday, philanthropist Melinda Gates announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend $1.5 billion over five years to support maternal and child health projects such as family planning, nutrition and health care for pregnant women, newborns and children in India, Ethiopia and other countries.

"Policymakers in both rich and poor countries have treated women and children, quite frankly, as if they matter less than men," Gates said. "They have squandered opportunities to improve the health of women and babies."

The belief that death is inevitable and therefore acceptable is the main obstacle to improving the health of women and newborns, rather than disease or logistical challenges, Gates said.

Participants will call on governments and private donors to increase funding to at least $12 billion US to address maternal, reproductive, and newborn health around the world.

The conference comes three weeks before Canada hosts the G8 Summit, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said global maternal and reproductive health will be a focus.