Programmes continue at improving women's health, reports Reem Leila On 9 October Mrs Suzanne Mubarak presided over a meeting of the new board of the Suzanne Mubarak Regional Centre for Women's Health and Development. Attending the meeting were several new board members, including Health Minister Hatem El-Gabali, Minister of State for International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga, head of Egypt's UNDP Regional Office James Rowley, dean of Glasgow University's Medical Faculty David Parro, Alexandria's Governor Adel Labib and the National Council for Women's Secretary- General Farkhonda Hassan. The 12 member board discussed strategic issues relating to the centre and ways of developing its overall status. During the visit Mrs Mubarak voiced hope that the centre would contribute to global efforts aimed at improving women's health both in Africa and elsewhere. Addressing the board, Mrs Mubarak stressed that women's contributions are essential to meeting the millennium goals set by the United Nations which include eliminating poverty, reducing child and maternal mortality, improving reproductive health and combating disease. "Despite numerous challenges," she said, "a recent UN report identified Egypt as one of 23 nations taking major steps towards implementing the millennium development goals." Health, particularly reproductive health, and development are inextricably linked, Mrs Mubarak added, and "development cannot be achieved without good reproductive health services". Egypt, she continued, remained committed to the programme developed by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development which was held in Cairo: universal access to reproductive health services; primary education that closed the gender gap; the reduction of infant mortality rates; the increase in life expectancy for both mothers and infants and the reduction of HIV and malaria infection rates. "Complications during pregnancy are the second largest cause of death among women aged between 25 and 49," she said. "According to World Health Organisation statistics 230,000 women died during pregnancy or childbirth all over the world in 2002, whereas 866,000 died of HIV." Family planning constitutes one of the most serious challenges facing Egypt. "The African continent has the highest fertility rates in the world. Women have an average 4.6 children each and less than 17 per cent of them use contraceptives. We need to pool our efforts in the face of these challenges. I hope this centre will be able to play a major role in improving women's reproductive health across Africa and in other developing countries," said Mrs Mubarak. Minister of Health El-Gabali told the meeting the budget allocated to improving women's reproductive health over the next five years is $16 million. "In the last three years the centre has trained doctors and nurses from 19 Arab and African countries. It has held 126 seminars and 32 training programmes focussed on improving women's reproductive health," he said. Medical services, he continued, have succeeded in lowering infant mortality rates and increasing life expectancy to the levels of advanced countries, while national campaigns had succeeded in lowering the fertility rates from 7.2 children per woman in the early 1960s to 3.4 in 1998. Following the meeting Mrs Mubarak visited a handicraft training programme for Sudanese female refugees organised by the centre in cooperation with the Irish Embassy.
