The world has made no progress in reducing preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, says UN agency
Women and girls living in poor and marginalised communities have been left out of three decades of advances in sexual and reproductive health, according to a new UN report—with 800 women dying while giving birth globally every day, a figure unchanged since 2016. The 2024 State of World Population report1 found that while global maternal mortality declined by 34% between 2000 and 2020, overall progress on women’s health has slowed or stalled because of “violations of women’s reproductive health rights”—notably among the poorest, those belonging to minority groups, and those trapped in conflict settings. The report, from the UN Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (UNFPA), marks the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994 where 179 governments committed to placing sexual and reproductive health at the core of sustainable development. There has been remarkable progress since then, Natalia Kanem, executive director of UNFPA, …