UN says big gains made on women's health in the last 20 years, but access still unequal.

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UNFPA report lauds progress on health in past 20 years, but condemns ongoing violence and discrimination against women

Efforts to ensure women's access to family planning, and to reduce the number of maternal and child deaths, have achieved significant results over the past 20 years, but progress has been unequal and fragmented, according to the UN.

The number of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth has dropped by almost half, and total global fertility rates have fallen by nearly a quarter. But access to health services remains patchy, particularly in rural areas of Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia, and sex discrimination remains deeply entrenched.

"A belief in, and commitment to, gender equality is not universal, and gender-based discrimination and violence continue to plague most societies," says a report by the U N population fund, the UNFPA, which reviewed progress against commitments made at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994.

"While the core message of the ICPD was the right of all persons to development, the rise of the global middle class has been shadowed by persistent inequalities both within and between countries. While we have made important gains in health and longevity, these gains are neither equally shared, nor accessible for many," says the report.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/12/women-health-access-unequal-un