18 Oct 2017

Botswana has committed to the International Conference of Population and Development to ensure that all couples and individuals are to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and have information and means to do so.

Launching the State of the World Population Report (SWOP) of 2017 in Gaborone on October 17, Minister of Health and Wellness, Ms Dorcus Makgato noted that the country is also committed to other international human rights treaties and conventions that espouse sexual and reproductive health rights.

Launched under the theme World Apart: Reproductive Health and Rights in an Age of Inequality, she said focus on the report is timely and challenges the country to interrogate its work in fulfilling the sexual and reproductive health and rights to all without exception whether wealthy or poor, young and old.

Minister Makgato told various stakeholders who graced the occasion that this is evidenced in the policies and programmes that the country is implementing that are anchored on ensuring that children are by choice not chance. For this, she said the country is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015, noting that this ambitious agenda called for countries to ensure that no one is left behind and guarantee equity in provision of services.  

“We are in the second year of the SDGs, as such, the SWOP report is timely in introspecting on whether we are making the progress needed in order to achieve our targets in reproductive health, rights as well as eliminating inequality,”she said.

Meanwhile, minister Makgato told attendants that a combination of continuous commitment, stakeholder collaboration, the right policies, financing, quality service delivery has assisted in the progress made thus far.

She however regretted that since Botswana is categorised as upper middle income country, the country find itself having to finance its health services with little support from outside.

In the meantime, the minister said empowering women to be able to control their family planning choices will facilitate their life choices too. They can complete their education, enter the paid labour force and gain more economic power. They are then able to meet all commitments in order to achieve equality, she noted, adding that helping them to get there should be high on priority list.

In a positive note, minister Makgatho thanked the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other partners for standing with government in empowering women and providing guidance through technical assistance.

In the same breadth, she said she looked forward to the result of the ongoing Maternal Mortality Ratio target setting exercise which will help the country better prepare to meet SDG.

A positive development found in the 2017 SWOP report encourages countries to eliminate inequalities in provision of sexual and reproductive health service. It pushes countries to protect the most fragile populations in communities, who are mostly the poor.

Minister Makgato therefore stressed that accessing sexual and reproductive health services should not be determined by where a woman lived, rural or urban, whether she was earning money or not or their age. The minister further said she would commit herself to ensuring that sexual and reproductive health rights of all women, everywhere in Botswana were respected, protected and fulfilled.ENDS