Big gains made on women's health, but access still unequal, says UN

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.

The wide-ranging study, which examines progress in more than 170 countries that signed up to the Cairo programme of action, found that people with disabilities, those from indigenous groups, and those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender have also faced persistent discrimination.