J Swanson-Jacobs: Men's involvement in maternal health at World
Population Day

Chairperson,
Honourable MEC for Social Development in Gauteng, Mr Lekgoro
Representative of the House of Traditional Leaders, Inkosi Kunene
Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Mr Nsiah
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Allow me to firstly congratulate the United Nations Population Fund on the
theme that has been chosen for this year's commemoration of World Population
Day, namely Men's Involvement in Maternal Health. The choice of this theme
reflects the progression of the global population and development discourse,
from one about numbers, to become a critical engagement on the empowerment of
women and gender relations in global development. Also, in the past we saw many
population issues as women's issues, but recently we have become more aware of
the role that men can play therein.

This year's theme for World Population Day should be understood as an
invitation to men worldwide, and in South Africa, to become part of our
struggle for gender equality. Today, we are calling on men from all walks of
life to become involved in the global and national quest to improve maternal
health.

It is not that population statistics are less important today than they were
in the past. It is rather a matter of modifying the meaning that we attach to
the statistics that we engage with, and the qualitative observations that
inform our understanding of such statistics.

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development was the
first major international conference that our infant democratic country
participated in. At the time, we joined the call in the conference's programme
of action for special efforts to "emphasise men's shared responsibility and
promote their active involvement in responsible parenthood, sexual and
reproductive behaviour."

The South African government also supported the elaboration of this point
five years later, at the 1999 review of the Programme of Action, to include
aspects of maternal health in the ambit of men's roles and responsibilities.
Specifically, it was agreed that men should assist their partners to:

* protect women's health, including supporting their partners' access to
sexual and reproductive health services
* prevent unwanted pregnancy
* prevent sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV & AIDS
* promote the elimination of harmful practices, such as female genital
mutilation and sexual violence.

Chairperson, the Development Indicators Mid-Term Review that was released by
the Presidency last month indicated that our country's "Maternal Mortality
Ratio is increasing and has more than doubled between 1998 and 2003." In 2003,
165,5 women per 100 000 died from pregnancy-related causes in South Africa.
Whilst part of the statistical increase is due to improved recording of data,
the trend is of great concern at a time where we only have eight years left to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals, one of which is to reduce maternal
mortality by 75%. In the same year, 2003, 92% of births in South Africa were
delivered by a health professional, which represents a remarkable achievement
in service delivery. This was made possible by the fact that today, according
to the Department of Health, all South Africans live within five kilometres of
a clinic.

Chairperson, the contrast between improved health services and a declining
maternal health status should lead us to understand that maternal health has
more dimensions to it than only clinical care. World Population Day 2007 should
focus our attention on these other dimensions that mitigate against improved
maternal health. They include:

* HIV & AIDS
* poor nutrition
* Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), many of which are curable
* poor education
* status of women, including unequal access to and control over resources and
decision making power.

Ladies and gentlemen, you will agree with me that these issues lie at the
heart of gender relations. HIV & AIDS transmission, as well as the transfer
of Sexually Transmitted Infections mostly occur as a consequence of sexual
relations between men and women. Not only are men and women equally responsible
for their own and their partner's protection against these diseases. We also
have a responsibility to allow our partners the basic right to protect
themselves against the risk of infection. The fact that many women in South
Africa remain vulnerable to these diseases is a consequence of persistent
gender inequality, and their consequent powerlessness to negotiate safe terms
of sexual engagement.

Similarly, men often also play a deciding role in the educational and
economic opportunities afforded to women, and the denial of these opportunities
limits women's access to information and choices of lifestyles that would
assist them to protect themselves against the consequences of poor maternal
health care.

Our focus today is not only on what men should not do. We should also engage
on what it is that men can, and must, do to help rid our society of the
hundreds of maternal deaths that occur annually. The World Population Day
activities that take place across the country today and over the next few weeks
should serve as the springboard from which to advocate that men have a positive
contribution to make to maternal health. I believe that many men will embrace
this opportunity when or if they understand the role that they can play.

We have to advocate to men, and in partnership with men, that our activism
against gender-based violence has to include activism to protect ourselves and
each other against HIV & AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections. We also
have to advocate that the education of a girl-child, and the employment of a
woman, empowers them to live longer and healthier lives, and to safe
motherhood.

Chairperson, allow me to highlight the following:

* Men are important role models to other men, especially to boys, and should
teach other men, including their own sons, to respect women.
* Men have a responsibility to share the joy of pregnancy with their partners,
which must include ensuring that their partners have access to proper
reproductive health and maternal health care, and nutrition.
* Men must speak out about HIV & AIDS and other STIs, and protect their
partners against these diseases. A man who protects himself also automatically
protects his partner
* Men and women have to communicate about these issues in their relationship �
research has proved that couples who communicate better also have healthier
sexual lives.
* Men who play leadership roles, including in the religious, traditional,
employment and other spheres can make an important difference in how the
general population perceives the roles and responsibilities of men.
* We especially have to work together to protect young women, especially
teenagers, from unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. Teenage pregnancies not only
carry a higher risk to the health of the mother, but also reduce educational
and economic opportunities for young women.

Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that our activities today will only be the
start of a concerted effort to unite the government and civil society at all
levels in initiatives to address the social dimensions of maternal health. We
have to complement the great strides that have been made to date to improve
service delivery with programmes that reverse the trend in maternal mortality
in our country, to bring us closer to the achievement of this very important
Millennium Development Goal.

The first step to improve the shocking state of maternal health in our
society must be to recognise it as a basic human right. Men must share the
responsibility to break down the social barriers that prevent the realisation
of this basic right. South African men and women must unite to demand the
sexual and reproductive rights and freedoms that are enshrined in our
constitution from each other. We cannot tolerate the denial of these rights and
freedoms any longer � not by institutions or by our partners.

Chairperson and all present, let World Population Day 2007 be our call to
action for the achievement of a maternal health status in our society that we
can be proud of. I am confident that our deliberations today will produce
concrete proposals to carry forward, together.

Thank you.

Zingaphi Matanzima
Deputy Director: Media Liaison
Department of Social Development
Tel: 012 312 7381
Fax: 012 312 7470
Cell: 073 122 3133/074 197 8383
E-mail: zingaphim@socdev.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Social Development
11 July 2007