The cost to stop women dying in childbirth? 46 military aircrafts

NAIROBI: Countries need about $264 billion - the equivalent cost of 110 military aircrafts - to end maternal deaths, gender based violence, child marriage, and provide family planning to all women by 2030, said a United Nations study. An investment of $115.5 billion which is equivalent to the cost of 46 high-end military aircrafts - would end needless maternal deaths by 2030, researchers said at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Kenya.

The price for ending the 12 million child marriages every year would be $35 billion, they said, adding it would cost $600 to spare a girl from becoming a child bride - the equivalent cost of a one night in a luxury hotel. Nations have committed to three global goals related to women’s sexual and reproductive rights within the next 10 years, but the report by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) found there was a funding shortfall to meet these targets.

“We now know how much and where we need to invest. These figures are a drop in the ocean compared to the dividend expected and the funds available,” UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem told the global conference late on Tuesday. “I believe it’s wrong to even refer to this as a cost. These are smart, affordable investments that will transform the lives of women and girls, their societies, and our world. The cost of inaction is much higher.”

Every day more than 800 women die from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth, according to the UNFPA. More than 230 million women want to prevent pregnancy but are not using modern contraception. One in three women globally have faced some form of physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, while harmful practices - such as child marriage - mean every day 33,000 girls are being forcefully wed, according to the UNFPA.

Researchers said the $264 billion would be used for interventions like hiring medical staff, purchasing drugs, contraceptives and obstetric supplies, research, providing counseling and boost community outreach programs. John Stover, director of Avenir Health which was involved in the study, said the cost was not any higher because many of the interventions to combat gender based violence were the same required to reduce child marriage and female genital mutilation.

“Keeping girls in school and economic empowerment are key to all of these interventions. So in reality, its not very expensive - we have some idea how to do it, we just need the will power to go forward and do it,” Stover said. Kamau Macharia, principal secretary at the foreign ministry in Kenya - where one in five girls are married before 18 and 35% of maternal deaths are caused from unsafe abortions - said the amount to meet the global goals was “miniscule”.

“$264 billion is miniscule in the face of the cost of the thousands of dead mothers, the cost of the hundreds of thousands of orphaned children who are left behind and the cost of families broken up by abuse and violence,” said Macharia. The three-day summit, which started on Tuesday, involves more than 6,000 participants ranging from heads of state to financial institution and civil society groups from 160 nations discussing sexual and reproductive health and rights. — Reuters

Ascension could also use Google computing tools to allow employees to communicate and collaborate securely in real time from different sites, according to the post by Google cloud industry products and solutions president Tariq Shaukat. “All of Google’s work with Ascension adheres to industry-wide regulations regarding patient data, and come with strict guidance on data privacy, security and usage,” Shaukat said.

“To be clear: under this arrangement, Ascension’s data cannot be used for any other purpose than for providing these services we’re offering under the agreement, and patient data cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data.” The internet colossus disclosed little about what it is testing in Project Nightingale as it competes to be the preferred platform for patients and care providers. “It is a shame that the rush of distrust is hitting this one for Google,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

“This is actually them trying to do something good. Project Nightingale is, for the most part, intended to improve the quality of healthcare.” Google’s cloud team works with dozens of healthcare service providers on technology to analyze medical data and make it readily available to patients and those treating them, according to the company. “Google is really doubling-down on healthcare,” said Wedbush Research managing director Daniel Ives. “Health care is really the next frontier that Google, Amazon, IBM, Apple and others are going after.” — AFP