MANILA, Sept. 16 (PNA) — The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) on Wednesday launched a policy toolkit that promotes sexual and reproductive health to ensure that women are protected while they work.
The Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Policy Toolkit, which will be presented during the APEC World Leaders’ Summit in November, recognizes that women are prime movers of global economic growth, even as they perform their dual role as homemaker and moneymaker.
Merck Healthcare Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Belen Garijo, one of the experts invited by the APEC on women and health, stressed the importance of healthy women in the economy.
“Health goes hand-in-hand with workforce,” she said.
Department of Health Assistant Secretary Paulyn Ubial noted that women face the double burden of caring for the young and the old – barriers to achieving healthy women and healthy economies.
The toolkit is in tune with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against All Women (CEDAW), which guarantees women and men equal access to health care services, including family planning, and equal access to information, education, and means to enable them to exercise these rights.
The CEDAW also guarantees equal right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of children.
As such, the APEC action plan includes providing services on HIV treatment, family planning, antenatal management, childbirth, and postpartum care and infant and child care.
It also seeks to address problems of distance, lack of facilities, lack of transportation, inadequate number of skilled workers, strengthening and developing health services to make them comprehensive and age-appropriate.
Mutimedia, such as print, television, radio, and the Internet, will also be tapped to educate, develop, and help women recognize their rights to health.
In the Philippines, the Reproductive Health Bill, also known as The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10354), was enacted. It guarantees universal access to methods on contraception, fertility control, sex education, and maternal care. Passed in 2012, it is still awaiting the implementing rules and regulations. (PNA)