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Photo: Janna OberdorfAround the world, young people are change makers who dream of a better, brighter future. Sooner than we think, they will be the ones shaping policy and driving progress, and we need their input now to best understand what to strive for in the future. Last spring, Women Deliver worked with The Lancet and Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW) to compile essays written by young people about their hopes and goals. In this publication, titled We Have a Dream, some dreams are very concrete and specific, such as Raquel Revuelta from Argentina’s wish for access to sexual and reproductive information and services. Others are much more abstract, like Kwa Gaston from Cameroon’s dream of “…a world in which every human being has the right not only to life, but to a life worth living.”

Dreams such as these can be both inspiring and daunting. Throughout history, dreams that seemed impossible have forced people to grasp far beyond what they ever thought they could reach. Hope and human ingenuity have always been our driving force.

We are now less than two years away from the end of one development framework and the beginning of another. For the past two decades, the International Conference on Population and Development’s (ICPD) Plan of Action, and later the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), have guided global development efforts, shaping how we measure progress towards a future in which all people have access to the resources they need to need to live long, healthy lives.

Looking back, it is incredible to think of all that has been achieved in recent years. More women are surviving pregnancy and childbirth than ever before, and the number of children under five dying each year fell from 12.6 million in 1990 to 6.6 million in 2012. New HIV infections have declined 33 percent from 2001 to 2012. Female representation in politics is growing — more than 50 countries have been led by a female head of state or head of government.

So many other accomplishments cannot be quantified in numbers. Increasingly, more men are advocating for girls and women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services. At Women Deliver 2013, the Prime Minister of Malaysia told a crowd of more than 4,500 in-person attendees and 50,000 webcast viewers that access to reproductive health services is a human right. His words were, above all else, a statement of progress-one that we hope will lead other global leaders to voice their support for the health and rights of girls and women.

This support is needed now more than ever. The progress we have made is heartening, but does not diminish the challenges that remain. MDG 5 — reducing maternal deaths and achieving universal access to reproductive health — has not made sufficient progress and is the most underfunded of all the health MDGs. Although nearly all maternal deaths are entirely preventable, 800 women continue to die every day because they lack access to quality care and services. Family planning has been recognized as a proven, life-saving solution, yet 222 million women in the developing world still are not able to obtain modern contraceptives.

In many parts of the world, even if a pregnant woman can convince her husband or family that she needs medical care, she faces difficulties in getting to the hospital. Once she gets there, there may not be electricity, essential supplies, or trained health workers. More than a third of women in developing countries are not assisted by skilled health workers while giving birth. Young women are especially at risk: adolescents 15-19 are twice as likely to die in childbirth as women in their twenties, and pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths are one of the leading causes of death for adolescent girls.

We need leaders across all sectors and around the globe to take action now to improve maternal and reproductive health. This entails ensuring that all girls and women have access to affordable, quality care, that health workers are adequately trained and compensated, and that health facilities have the resources they need. Private sector partners can help by ensuring that hospitals and clinics have access to essential medicines and supplies. Governments and donors can provide sustainable funding. Young people and civil society can give critical input into how policies and programs could be improved to better reach people in need.

When we all work together in tandem, there is tremendous potential for positive change. Investing in girls and women leads to more lives saved and more robust economies. With every step we take in this direction, we paint a brighter future.

The actions we take now to promote the health of girls and women can also help make the world more sustainable. The MDGs will soon be replaced by new goals that will build on lessons learned while also working towards a more environmentally and economically sustainable world. This means ensuring that already scarce resources are used wisely and to their full potential.

With each passing day, the world’s population grows larger while food, water and power supplies diminish. The global population is expected to reach eight billion by 2030, and the world will need to produce an estimated 50% more food and energy to meet this demand. Women can play a crucial role: their unpaid labor contributes up to one-third of global GDP, and they operate the majority of small farms in the developing world.

This is only the beginning. If women’s employment rates were raised to the same level as men’s, GDP would rise 9 percent in the US and 16 percent in Japan, and per capita income in 15 developing countries would rise 14 percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2030.  Providing women with equal access to agricultural resources would reduce the number of undernourished people by as many as 150 million. Women also invest more of their income in their families and communities than men, increasing access to education and health services, which, in turn, reduces poverty.  

Girls and women are instrumental to the achievement of sustainable development goals. In a speech at the U.S. Green Building Council in November 2013, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the crowd, “… there’s growing evidence that corporations with women in leadership positions, as corporate executives, and in the board, are actually more focused on sustainability.” Women are also uniquely affected by environmental issues such as access to clean water and clean cookstoves, and their insight into product development and outreach is invaluable in developing successful interventions.

Investing in girls and women, particularly their access to maternal and reproductive health services, education, nutrition, employment and political representation, is an investment in a more productive, equitable and sustainable world. Now is the time is to work together across genders, generations, borders and sectors to make sure that the new development framework is able to achieve what the MDGs did not. This requires recognizing that girls and women are central to development and sustainable growth and that we each need to do our part to close the gaps between girls, women and the resources they need. Together, we can reach the shared dream that 29-year old Souleymane Konate from Mali summed up in just one word: “Progress.” GHD