Brazzaville, Congo, 4 September 2012
Today, 4 September 2012, the WHO African Region is commemorating its fourth Women’s Health Day. The theme for today’s commemoration, ‘Women, Ageing and Health’, is in perfect congruence with the theme for World Health Day 2012, which was‘Ageing and Health’, with the slogan of ‘Good Health Adds Life To Years’.
In our traditional societies, elderly people continue to play an important role within the community. They have always been seen as a resource, and a repository of wisdom and experience. They are the custodians of practices and traditions governing infant feeding, in addition to being the providers of postpartum care. Furthermore, elderly women have been instrumental in providing extraordinary support to children by taking over the responsibilities of parents whose lives are lost to various diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
It is important to note that some progress has been made since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the 2002 Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing and the adoption in 2003 of Women’s Health: A Strategy for the African Region. Women, however, continue to face many gender-related obstacles, handicaps, inequalities and injustices. Hence, the importance of giving special attention to the gender-related conditions affecting the day-to-day living of women throughout their life course, from birth to old age.
Although women in privileged positions experience health problems linked to the normal consequences of ageing very belatedly, the vast majority of women in developing countries age too early as they have to grapple with external factors including malnutrition, poverty, multiple pregnancies and hard labor throughout their lifetime. This calls for an urgent action to improve the quality of life of women today in order to preserve their well-being tomorrow, and prevent the additional burden of disease and disability on the society.
On the occasion of this fourth Women’s Health Day 2012, I call upon all leaders and officials, women’s associations, nongovernmental organizations, research institutions and the private sector as well as other development partners to work towards innovative multisectoral policies and strategies aimed at reducing poverty and social inequalities among elderly women.
The World Health Organization, as the lead technical agency in health, will provide support to countries in drawing up appropriate guidelines on the necessary actions and will support advocacy for concerted action of all stakeholders towards this noble goal.
Let us all join hands to improve the quality of life of women so that they can enjoy healthy ageing.
Thank you.