'Progress on women’s health needs more attention from stakeholders'

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in improving the lives of women and girls over the last 20 years, but the progress is still behind expectations, experts said on the opening day of a two-day summit of G100 (Group of 100 global women leaders) in Dhaka yesterday.

Citing WHO-South East Asia Report 2021, they mentioned that each year scores of women and children in Bangladesh suffer and die from various diseases – 26.94% from stroke, 22.99% from ischaemic heart disease, 12.04% from chronic obstructive pulmonary, 7.94% from diarrheal diseases, 6.65% from lower respiratory infections, 5.34% from tuberculosis, 3.79% from lower kidney diseases, 3.47% from alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and 3.41% from breast cancer.

G100 has identified 100 sectors to ensure parity between men and women towards achieving zenith level of global development and health is one of them, speakers said at the event. 

The ongoing global progress on women's health demands more attention from all stakeholders, they added. 

G100 also cited the UN Women Report 2022 and said over 380 million women and girls face extreme poverty, living on less than $1.90 a day. Nearly 1 in 3 women experience moderate or severe food insecurity.

Some 1.2 billion women and girls of reproductive age live in countries and areas with some restrictions on access to safe abortion, it added. 

This earth contains 3.88 billion women, half of the total global population of 7.84 billion. 

The UN Committee reports that these women perform two-thirds of the world's work hours but they are paid one-tenth of the world's income, they own less than one-hundredth of the world's property, on average they are poorer everywhere in resources, they are poorly represented in positions of power-said participant.

The G100 Dhaka Meeting that began on Monday aims to exchange knowledge, views, experiences regarding how Bangladesh can be aided further to promote and enhance healthcare and wellness of women and children that can accelerate the achievement of SDGs 3 and 5 in all walks of life of women.

During these two days' programmes, different meetings, sessions, and events will take place that will be attended by diplomats, UN officials, and government high officials.

While addressing the opening session, G100 leaders said they are co-creating a bold and beautiful model of working together in shared vision and aligned actions with gender respect, balance and parity.

Harbeen Arora Rai, founder and president of G100, said, "We are not waiting a 100 hundred years for gender parity. 

Farzanah Chowdhury, convener of the G100 meeting, Barrister Fatemaa Waariithah Ahsan, country chair (Human Rights), Hartini Binti Osman, global chair (Poverty Eradication), Sonia Bashir Kabir, global chair (IT Service and Innovation), Mar Introini, global chair (Global Networking), Jennifer Randive, global chair (Oneness and Wisdom), Alex Okoroji, global chair (Media Arts and Communication), Diah Yusuf, global chair (Business Accelerator), and Nadia Binte Amin, director of the BGMEA and president of the WEND also spoke on the occasion.

G100 is an influential group of 100 women leaders from across the world, in 100 wings and sectors, supported by 100 eminent He for She champions, and 100 country clubs in each wing for powerful advocacy, awareness and impact across governments and global organisations for a gender equal future in this decade.