Women's issues are an extremely low priority and needed to be focused on as the situation has neither improved nor any headway could be made in achieving the targets in this regard.
"Multiple strategies are required to give the women their due status," was the outcome of the fourth provincial consultation on `Challenges to meet reproductive health and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in post-quake situation', organised by the Marie Stopes Society and Shirkat Gah at a local hotel on Monday.
Maternal health services had not improved at all. "Three women die every hour owing to pregnancy related causes. Discrimination on the base of gender, HIV is here and we have to stop denying it," participants in the consultation said.
Recognition of women's contribution to economic and social activities, promotion of private sector to take over contraceptive and family planning, involvement of men in the family planning besides use of the language that people can relate to can help address the population growth besides focus on youth, especially at a rural level, for the purpose.
It should be made mandatory for young people to work on social issues as part of their curricula. Training of skilled birth attendants, mapping out individual and organisational strengths and come up with a cohesive and comprehensive plan of action could also be helpful in this regard.
Demand for an increase in GDP on health and reproductive health, challenging government on very easy excuses like lack of absorption capacity and human resources and review of budget allocation, holding the ministry of health accountable, the need to become more sophisticated in tracking where the money was going and utilisation of tools used in other countries were the other recommendations.
The consultation was attended by over 50 participants representing different spheres of development, including representatives of government, NGOs, academicians, activists, experts and media.
Organised as part of Marie Stopes Society's advocacy initiative of "Empowering civil society to advocate for political commitment-addressing the SRHR of poor people in Pakistan", the consultation was a component of a series of similar events.
Managing Director Dr Mohsina Bilgrami of the MSS briefed the participants on the background of the consultations. Advocacy consultant Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi apprised the participants of the highlights of MDG progress report that was submitted to United Nations before its September summit.
Parliamentary Secretary on Population and MNA Dr Donya Aziz and Federal Population Secretary Shahzado Sheikh gave an overview of their ministry work in quake-hit areas.
They also explained measures to prevent donor and compassion fatigue in post-quake situation.
Khawar Mumtaz from Shirkat Gah highlighted the reproductive health needs i n earthquake areas which largely went unnoticed.
MPA Shaheen Atiqur Rahman, Dr Robina Sohail, Dr Saman Yazdani and Kazi Afaque Husain spoke at the interactive panel discussion on "How can we continue to focus reproductive health in MDG charter."
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