The access to reproductive health services is crucial to reducing poverty, said a United Nations official in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province on Wednesday, who called on stepped-up efforts to boost input in this regard.

Imelda Henkin, deputy executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), said that poverty is intimately linked with a lack of access to family planning and reproductive health as the world population predicted to reach 9.1 billion in 2050 from the present 6.5 billion depends on whether people will continue to have the means to decide when and how often to have children.

Speaking at the Oct. 26-28 International Symposium on ODA (Official Development Assistance) for Population and Development, she urged governments to devote more efforts to offering reproductive health services to all people, noting that the pace of change is slow.

"Every developing country should have a budget line for reproductive health and reproductive health commodities. Key to these efforts is reproductive health commodity security -- making sure that condoms and contraceptives and other supplies are available at the right time, at the right place and at the right price."

She called on donors to give higher priority to supplies in their assistance packages and to ensure that countries have made adequate budgetary and institutional provision for commodity purchases and logistics, while countries receiving assistance should ensure that commodities are one of the components of the essential drugs list.

The UNFPA appeals to the international development community to contribute US$150 million per year till 2015 to enhance reproductive health commodity security, the target date for achieving the Millennium development goals.

Henkin stressed that greater progress must also be made in integrating efforts for sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS as the best way to reach women is through established reproductive health, ante-natal and family planning services free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

"Decisions at the World Summit will make little difference to ordinary people unless all governments display greater political and financial commitment to ensure reproductive health services for all, and to make the promise of gender equality a reality, with respect to political, social, cultural and economic status of women."

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2005)