The Current Situation and Challenges of Yemeni Women’s Health Care

1. The Current Situation and Challenges of Yemeni Women’s Health Care Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

2. The Current Situation of Yemeni Women’s Health Care • Yemen is classified as a ‘least developed country’ and it is the poorest country in the Arab world. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

3. The Current Situation of Yemeni Women’s Health Care • Yemen ranks last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index and the UNDP’s gender empowerment measure. • It ranks 133 out of 177 countries in the 2010 . • UNDP Human Development Index (0.439). • 76% of the total population; and lack of basic infrastructure, Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

4. National Indicators • Population 22,198,000(2008) • Population Growth Rate 3% (2004) • Life expectancy at birth 62 (2009) • Ratio of urban population to rural population 3:7 (2008) • GDP Growth rate (at fixed Prices) 4.7 (2009) • Maternal mortality rate on birth per 100,000 births 365(2009) Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

5. Health Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

6. Health Expenditure indicators Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

7. The Current Situation of Yemeni Women’s Health Care • Many Yemeni children and women are victims of neglect, abuse, and exploitation. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

8. The Current Situation of Yemeni Women’s Health Care • Early marriage is Yemen’s biggest single development challenge but the national debate about setting a minimum marriage age is highly politicized. • An estimated one in four girls in Yemen will be married by the age of 15. Girls are commonly married as young as 8 years old, often as second or third brides for much older men. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

9. Reproductive Health • The reproductive health in Yemen, is the less fortunate in the Arab world, where die 365 women per 1000000live births as a result of complications that occur during pregnancy and childbirth and the period after birth, making maternal mortality the biggest cause of death (42%) among women of reproductive age in Yemen, • Estimated neonatal mortality rate of 37 per 1000 live births, accounting neonatal mortality of 49% of the total infant mortality rate, • The total fertility in Yemen is among the highest in the world with an estimated fertility rate in Yemen to 6.3% Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

10. Indicators Related to Maternal Mortality and Care Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

11. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

12. Reproductive Health • Yemen is featured with high fertility rates (5.2 for each woman), according to the Cluster Survey of 2006, due to early marriage and repeated pregnancy that deteriorates women's health, in addition to the dominating culture that discourage uses of family planning means. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

13. Uses of Contraceptives • The prevalence of current use of family planning methods among married women is estimated at 28% in urban areas and 2.9% in rural areas. • That 30% of women use modern methods of family planning if facilitated access, • That a quarter of women in Yemen do not agree to the use of family planning methods Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

14. Uses of Contraceptives; as showed in Health Survey 2003,Cluster Survey 2006 and Target in year 2015 Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

15. Major Obstacles that Limit Women Accessibility to Health Services: • Lack of Female Health Workers, • High Cost of Health Care • The situation in Yemen is exacerbated by the lack of access to health care. • Only 28% of women are able to give birth with the help of trained medical personnel. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

16. Health Care Access Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

17. Availability of Medical Services • Only 26% of all Yemeni men and women report that medical services in their area are easily available. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

18. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

19. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

20. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

21. Quality of Medical Care • Yemeni women rate their health care as higher quality than do men. • A quarter of men rate their medical care as bad, and 9% rate it as very bad, compared to 11% and 4% of women respectively. • More women than men also rate their care as good quality (32% vs. 19%). • Neither men nor women receive very good quality care however – only 4% of women and 2% of men rate it as such Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

22. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

23. Yemen faces long-term challenges • high fertility rates • rapid population growth • lack of access to livelihood opportunities for the rural population, which counts 76% of the total population; • lack of basic infrastructure, such as schools, water scheme, health facilities, access roads and markets in many rural areas. • Yemen continues to face considerable development challenges. It ranks 133 out of 177 countries in the 2010 UNDP Human • Development Index (0.439). Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

24. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) • Major efforts are exerted to abandon FGM, where the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood has adopted National Work plan for 2008-2012 years, to reduce the rate of this practice to 30 percent in 2012. • "Analytical Study on FGM in Yemen" by Gender Studies and Researches Center, at Sana'a University in cooperation with Yemeni Women Union in 2008. The Study concluded that: Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

25. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) • FGM is a common practice at 5 governorates out of 22. The communities of these governorates stressed that FGM is related to religion and culture; • 71.4 percent of females support continuation of this practice, compared to 48 percent of males, and illiterate females are more supportive than females with secondary and high school education; • Wide spread of FGM among urban areas; i.e. Sana'a with 45.5 percent; • More researches are needed to understand the socio-cultural context of the communities impacted with this practice. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

26. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) • In addition to conduct specific studies on: • explore knowledge, attitudes and practices in the 5 governorates; • health, psychological and social damages resulted from this practice; • religious context "justification" of this practice; • to raise awareness campaign on the devastating impact of this practice in the 5 coastal governorates, the plan is to abandon this practice by 50 percent to grandmothers at the age of 40-70 years and parents at the age of 15-45 years, by the year 2012. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

27. Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Progress in Yemen Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

28. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

29. Target One: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary school by 2015 Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

30. Major challenges to ensuring universal primary school education include: • A lack of adequate educational services; • Low levels of income; • A lack of basic services meaning some children are required to work; • Negative attitudes towards girl’s education; • Internal school inefficiency; • Low quality of school curricula; and • The inability of the school system to address problems such as overcrowding in classes, improper distribution of teachers and poorly equipped schools. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

31. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

32. Target One: Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

33. The following issues are hindering Yemen’s efforts to achieve this MDG: • Poverty forces many girls to leave education; • Drop-out rates are high among girls; • Early marriage and pregnancy is common; • There is a lack of female teachers; • There is a lack of awareness about the importance of girls education; • There is a lack of proper training opportunities and facilities for women; and, • Cultural believes about gender roles impede girls’ access to education. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

34. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

35. Target One: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality rate by 2015 Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

36. Many factors contribute to the high maternal mortality rate in Yemen includinge: • Early marriage and pregnancy; • Malnutrition; • Poor quality health services; • The large number of women who are anaemic during pregnancy; and • Poor distribution of health services. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

37. Recommendations • Construct more health facilities at governorates and districts that lacks such services on equal basis; • Enhance health care services, maternal and reproductive health services in addition to vaccination services in rural areas in particular; • Employ more females at health facilities and midwives in rural areas in particular, and encourage female workers at rural areas to ensure their sustainability; • Establish mechanisms to follow-up and assess implementation of free provision of basic health care/services, pregnant care, and delivery under medical attendance; Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

38. Recommendations • Develop and update health statistic database and indicators and integrate gender in its outputs; • Revise and improve the free distribution policy of the contraceptives; • Identify marriage age to reduce maternity mortalities among below 20 years age group of mothers; • Implement free provision of deliver Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

39. Recommendations • The government should increase budget allocations to the public health sector, with a focus to health care and reproductive health needs of women in rural areas • The government should work with women's rights organizations and legislators on the amendment of all discriminatory laws against women. • Enhance public and private communication channels to develop awareness with gender issues; • Government and non-governmental women's rights that the development of programs bugs awareness of the rights of women to make women aware of their rights and their protection under the laws of And the Constitution of Yemen. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI

40. Dr. Md Abdullah HADI