9 October 2006

Better family planning needed to
lessen climate change impact

Yesterday's warnings of large flows of environmental refugees from the Asia-Pacific region due to climate change underlines the need for increased spending on sexual and reproductive health in Australia's aid program, the head of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, Christina Richards, said today.

Ms Richards said the CSIRO's estimate of many millions of people being displaced within the next 45 years by rising sea levels could be lessened if population growth slowed due to improved family planning.

"The human suffering and displacement arising from climate change could be greatly reduced by better family planning services in virtually every country to which Australia provides overseas aid," Ms Richards said.

"The Asia-Pacific region is home to two-thirds of the world's poor. At present, hundreds of millions of people are having more children than they want because of the lack of availability of contraceptive information and facilities.

"The Prime Minister last year reaffirmed Australia's commitment to the UN's Population and Development programme, which calls for donor nations to work towards universal availability of access to high-quality
reproductive health and family planning services, with particular emphasis on meeting the needs of undeserved population groups.

"However the UN's State of the World Population report, released last month, reveals that while Asia is making progress towards meeting the UN goals, much of the Pacific is not, and even in Asia there are no grounds for complacency.

"Whereas in Australia we have a maternal death rates of 8 deaths per 100,000 births, our nearest neighbour, Papua New guinea, has a rate of 300. There is no data for PNG on unmet need for family planning, but the statistics show around three quarters of married women in PNG are not using any method of contraception. In PNG approximately one in 80 people has AIDS, compared with one in 1,250 in Australia.

"the maternal death rate in Cambodia is even higher - 450 per 100,000 births, with an estimated 30 per cent of married women having an unmet need for family planning services. In Thailand, which has had a strong family planning programme for decades, the figure for maternal deaths per 100,000 births is only 44. In the Philippines, there are 200 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, with 20 per cent of married women having an unmet need for family planning."

Further information: Chris Richards  mobile: 0427 884 479

The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance (ARHA)
www.arha.org.au
Our mission is to promote public support for enhanced reproductive and sexual health in Australia and internationally, and promote the advancement of the status of women and girls.