Contraceptive Shortfall

WIRTH: Thank you Michael and our final panelist this afternoon is Amy Coen, the President of Population Action International, an international agency working on issues of reproductive health throughout the world. Amy Coen.

AMY COEN: Thank you Tim. At this meeting we're dealing with complex issues -- how to coordinate, finance and deliver the supplies needed to ensure good reproductive health. So first I'll mention some simple facts that make it clear why these issues are so important. And then I'll talk briefly about the kinds of financial resources involved. This builds on what some others have already said.

Of the six billion of us alive today, one half are young people under the age of 25 and of them, you've heard that one billion are between the ages of 15 and 24 -- and need reproductive health services right now or will need them very soon -- within 15 or so years.

That's in less than one generation, all three billion will have reached childbearing age. That is our time frame -- one generation. Demand is growing. Women and men increasingly want to plan their families and AIDS is dramatically increasing the need for condoms as Dr. Fox just said -- both male and female condoms, as well as other preventive methods such as microbicides.

People are dying. Whether we talk about 2.5 million people who died of AIDS last year or the more than 500,000 women who died in childbearing and pregnancy, the tragedy of this issue is that we know what to do about it. People have agreed on what to do about it, but the resources to do the job are lacking. In the international conference on population and development that Thoraya talked about, that was held in Cairo in 1994, 179 nations agreed on a plan to transform and to fund reproductive health programs in developing countries. They agreed that family planning, basic maternity care and HIV AIDS prevention were three cornerstones of reproductive healthcare.

They also agreed that to meet these reproductive health needs in developing countries, cost was estimated at $17 billion US in the year 2000, and nearly $22 billion in the year 2015. That's an annual cost and that was in 1993 dollars, and they agreed that donor nations would provide one-third of that cost -- developing nations, two-thirds.

So where do we stand? While overall spending has roughly doubled since 1994 from around four or $5 billion to more than 10 billion, we are still far short of even the year 2000 spending goal, and while developing countries have made it about three-quarters of the way to their $11-billion share (what they agreed to), wealthy donor nations are only about one-third of the way to reaching theirs. They’re not doing anywhere nearly as well as developing nations.

So what's the bottom line? The wealthiest nations of the world are not doing their fair share to prevent those 2.5 million deaths from AIDS, or those half a million deaths for women and pregnancy related causes. So where do reproductive health supplies commodities fit in?

The lack of overall funding trickles down, making it impossible to meet demand for contraceptives and condoms and this gap will only get worse unless donor nations do more to meet their fair share of overall funding and make the investment toward supplies in particular. The funding shortfall is estimated conservatively at $24 million in 2000. This may not seem like much, but in the next 15 years, that shortfall will grow exponentially. This shortfall will even appear less serious except that only a handful of donors provide the bulk of funds for contraceptives and their support tends to fluctuate every year.

So also it's critical to keep in mind that this figure is only for the goods themselves, and does not cover the cost of shipping, delivery, or associated services. In closing, I'd like to just say that this need is pressing and we must act. That's the focus of this meeting. The decisions we make at this meeting; the actions we agree on; the plans we lay will have an impact on millions of women and men around the world -- those most vulnerable. We must not fail them. Back to you Tim.

WIRTH: Thank you all very much. We've had four statements about the critical conference here, where the demand of recognizing global demand for commodities is growing. Aggressive and urgent international efforts have to be organized to ensure the availability and dependability of supply. Let me now turn the news conference over to our conference coordinator. I believe that's the procedure and she will there take it from here.