Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala discusses the gender health gap and how it disproportionately impacts women in developing countries. She describes her own frightening experience with a pregnancy complication and emphasizes how many maternal and neonatal deaths could be prevented with basic interventions like antenatal care and skilled birth attendants. Okonjo-Iweala also highlights issues like cervical cancer, where the majority of deaths occur in poor nations due to lack of screening and treatment. She advocates for efforts to increase access to vaccines for diseases like HPV and potentially Zika virus to help reduce health burdens on women globally.

1. +
Closing The
Gender
Health Gap
By Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

2. +
Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n In 1987, when I was five months pregnant with my youngest
child Uchechi, doctors told me they were concerned that his
head was not growing fast enough. It was one of the most
frightening moments of my life. I couldn’t bear it, the sense of
powerlessness in being able to do nothing but wait. It took
two long months of fortnightly sonograms before we were
finally given the all clear. Although Uchechi was fine in the
end, the terrifying experience will remain with us forever.

3. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n Today, nearly three decades later, my heart goes out to the
hundreds of thousands of pregnant women in Zika-infested
countries who are going through the same agonizing
experience of not knowing the fate of their unborn child, or
even worse those with confirmed cases of microcephaly. As
world leaders, policymakers and young people come
together in Copenhagen this week to discuss health, rights
and well-being of women and girls as part of this year’s
Women Deliver global conference, this epidemic is a
reminder that a gender gap exists in health as well as
education, economics and politics.

4. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n This gap is not simply due to the different medical needs of
men and women. It exists because in poor countries in
particular, where the gender gap is often already vast,
whenever women’s rights are marginalised or ignored, then
usually so too are their health needs.This can have profound
consequences and is one reason why pregnant women and
their unborn children are often some of the most vulnerable
members of society. If we are to close this gap and work
towards parity, we need to make protecting women’s health a
priority and accept that this will sometimes mean having to
go further and do more to redress the balance.

5. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n Pregnancy is a good example. For many women the very act
of bringing life into this world means putting their own life at
risk. In poor countries where women’s rights are often
denied, we see even the most basic maternal support denied
too. As a result, despite huge progress in reducing maternal
mortality, 99 per cent of the 289,000 women that still die
during child birth every year live in developing countries.

6. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n The really sad thing is that so many of these deaths could
easily be prevented.The solutions are well understood.
Simple interventions such as having regular antenatal care
during pregnancy and a skilled attendant during birth can
make all the difference.With the right political will and
investment these basic interventions can and should be
made available to all women wherever they live. And it’s not
just pregnant women who stand to benefit; improving
women’s access to quality antenatal services could also help
reduce the 2.7m neonatal deaths that occur every year and
the 2.6m stillborns.

7. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n Another example of where women in developing countries
suffer disproportionately is with cervical cancer.The number
of deaths caused by this horrific cancer has been steadily
increasing to the point that 266,000 women die every year,
putting it almost on a par with maternal deaths. Unless
something is done to stop it, this figure is expected to rise to
416,000 deaths by 2035. Again, it is the poorest women who
are most at risk, with 85 per cent of deaths occurring in
developing countries because, unlike in wealthy countries,
both screening and treatment are normally beyond their
reach.

8. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n The good news is that we are tackling this, but it has meant
having to go further. Since 2013, organisations like Unicef, the
World Health Organisation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of
which I am the Board Chair, have worked hard to make
human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines available in
developing countries, providing girls with protection against
the biggest causes of cervical cancer.To make this possible
first involved negotiating huge price reductions of the
vaccine and working with governments to find innovative
ways to reach girls at the optimum age, which falls outside
normal infant vaccine schedules. Nevertheless, such efforts
have led to a sea change, with 1m girls already vaccinated
with Gavi support, and a target of 30m to be reached in 40
countries by 2020.

9. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n With Zika, a vaccine is likely to be the best solution too,
preventing infectious disease in the many to protect the few.
We have already seen this with vaccinations against rubella
(or German measles), another disease that can have terrible
consequences when passed from mothers to unborn infants.
But, even though manufacturers are now racing to develop
Zika vaccines, development, testing and licensing will take
some time.

10. + Closing The Gender Health Gap -
Speech
n So for pregnant women in affected countries all we can do for
now is put in place mosquito prevention measures and do
everything in our power to protect them and their unborn
infants, while providing support for those families with
confirmed cases of microcephaly. In the meantime, we need
to turn our attention to wherever preventable health issues
are still affecting women. Because wherever this is
happening, it is a strong indication that women’s rights are
being ignored.

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To Learn More
n If you would like to learn more about Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, please visit the follow sites:
n http://ngoziokonjoiweala.net
n http://ngoziokonjoiweala.org
n http://ngoziokonjoiweala.info