Third Regional Conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association:

Agenda for change

Text of the Speech by the National Assembly of Pakistan Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza at third plenary on ‘Mother and Child’

The topic of this plenary focuses on an issue of utmost importance, for our region, namely ‘mother and child’. South Asia, today comprises one-fifth of humanity. With over one billion people to feed, it presents a unique dilemma of wasted or unmanaged resources, rising poverty and renewed conflicts.

The unabated growth in population is hampering the region’s economic progress. The natural resources are at risk because of insufficient conservation. This, in turn, is causing the environmental degradation, leading to natural calamities. And to add this vicious cycle are the multiple ethnic, religious and social conflicts.

This entire quagmire is badly hampering our respective national progress and in this whole process, women and children have come out as the worst effected.

The fact that South Asia is a region;

* where every third child-death of the world occurs;

* which carries two-thirds of the global burden of malnourished children

* which has the most dis-balanced sex ratios in the world with more than 50 million ‘missing women’ and

* where one third of all maternal deaths take place explains the adversity, which we are all confronted with.

As signatories to the UN Millennium Development Goals, we are duty-bound to reduce the under-five child and maternal mortality rates up to 75 percent by the year 2015. With less than four years remaining, the UN’s fact-sheets indicate that in South Asia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are most likely to achieve this target. Pakistan and Bangladesh may only succeed if wide-ranging changes in the entire State policies are made. This naturally is an uphill task.

Common agenda

Therefore we, the elected representatives of our region, must take a lead to make it our common agenda for a comprehensive redress. Let us look at this adversity as a common challenge. Let us re-fix our respective priorities.

I am reminded of an interesting comparison from history, which also involves our own region. When Mumtaz Mehal, the favourite of all wives of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan died during the birth of her 14th child, the Emperor built the Taj Mahal to memorise their strong bond of love and respect.

Incidentally, it’s around the same time, when the King of Sweden had built the world’s first well-equipped maternity home in memory of his beloved wife, who had also died of the same reason - birth of their child.

This explains the historic neglect of our society in addressing a core issue. As a result, South Asia continues to have the highest maternal deaths in the world till to-date while countries like Sweden rank top among the nations, who have finally overcome this menace.

Can this fine example still inspire South Asia to re-set its priorities and adopt a more focused approach?

The answer is YES if we succeed in building a strong, sustained and well-resourced community-based healthcare system, which does not only ensure safe deliveries through skilled midwives but which also nurtures ‘protected childhood’.

Developing countries

This is precisely what our Sri Lankan friends have succeeded in doing in terms of safe motherhood and hence have become a proud example for all developing countries. This is exactly what our great Leader, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto intended, when as Prime Minister she introduced a locally drawn dedicated corps of Lady Health Workers (LHW), assigned to provide neonatal, antenatal and child care facilities to the far-flung under-served areas.

Our late Prime Minster who once said:

“I dream of a Pakistan, of an Asia, of a world where every pregnancy is planned and every child conceived is nurtured, loved, educated and supported.” This mission continues to remain at heart with the present democratic leadership of my country. It is with this commitment that we have renewed our efforts through a re-organised Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Program, which aims at;

l Ensuring comprehensive and basic obstetric and new born care at the district level

* Enrolment, training and deployment of community midwives in rural areas

* Awareness, Advocacy and demand creation and

* Availability of family planning services at all health outlets.

But we must also not forget that such ambitious programs cannot thrive if are not zealously backed by a strong and committed political will.

Economic independence

Thoraya Obaid, the former Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund once remarked:

“The sum used by the world’s governments for six days of military expenditure would be enough to reduce maternal mortality in the world by 75 percent. This explains where the political priorities lie.”

It is a fact that the critical questions of healthy mothers and prospering children are closely attached to the status of women in any given society.

There is, after all, a strong link between women’s right to education, economic independence, own land, political participation and their sexual and reproductive health.

Statistics confirm that increased levels of female education have facilitated decreased IMR and U5 MR.

I am, therefore, especially pleased to note that our friends in the Maldives have already succeeded in achieving the MDG Target two, pertaining to the attainment of universal primary education while Bangladesh has excelled in achieving the MDG Target three, which relates to the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment.

These achievements will not only bring prosperity to you but will also have positive impact on the whole of South Asia.

Women in Pakistan too are vigorously following the same path.

The fact that today’s Pakistani Parliament has more than 22.7 percent women representation, which is the highest in the region, makes it all the more important for them to seek a greater role in decision-making and solving issues related to women and children.

It is thus that the vibrant Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, working under my patronage, is fast becoming the ‘critical mass’, which has effectively lead the Parliament to keep its focus on development issues.

A point in case is the passage of important pieces of legislation like the Act of Harassment at Workplace, corresponding amendments in the Penal Code and now the Reproductive Health Rights and Services Bill and Domestic Violence Bill, which are expected to be law within this year.

Only last week, at a plenary session of the Women’s Caucus, reproductive health care was the subject of discussion and the need for trained midwives came as a strong recommendation.

This will now be placed for consideration in the concerned standing committees of the Parliament.

I am also pleased to inform that the Caucus also took the initiative of organising the first-ever National Convention of Women Parliamentarians last year.

The women leaders from all the federating units and regions of Pakistan came in overwhelming numbers and one representative each from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka joined them to collectively discuss the vital issues of peace-making, security and reconciliation.

I am sure that the Caucus can provide a similar platform to the women legislators of South Asia for devising a common plan of action for their less fortunate sisters and children in the region.

All these bright examples from our respective countries clearly indicate that despite the harsh challenges, there are many silver linings.

The only missing link is the lack of coordination and the absence of an effective mechanism of resource and experience sharing among us.

* Why cannot we all benefit from the Sri Lankan expertise of trained midwives?

* How can the Maldives lead us in overcoming extreme poverty and hunger and in achieving universal primary education?

* Will Bangladesh take a lead in sharing its success in effective population control and women empowerment?

* And how can Pakistan’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus be a role model for CPA Asia Region in fostering close links among our women parliamentarians to jointly pursue a common agenda of development?

Such meaningful and targeted cooperation can turn CPA Asia Region into a dynamic and action-oriented forum and only then as fellow parliamentarians, we can transfer the benefits of our cooperation to our people. It’s about time we re-fix our priorities.

There might be opposition from some quarters within our societies. But let us not forget:

It is the leaders who break the status-quo and become agents of change.

So, let us commit ourselves to an agenda for change.

An agenda that fills our mother and children with a hope of a better future.

* A future free from diseases, which rack and ruin.

* A future free from polio, from goitre, from mal-nutrition, HIV-AIDS, unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions

These are the battles that we must fight, not only as nations but as a regional and global community. Because, these are the very battles on which history and our people will judge us.