Goal 5, Target 5.B:
Achieve, by 2015, universal
access to reproductive health
In order to reduce maternal mortality rates and improve
maternal health women need access to effective interventions
and high-quality reproductive health care.
Many countries have implemented programmes to
expand access to interventions in order to reduce the
level of unmet need for contraception, provide antenatal
care during pregnancy and ensure delivery by a
skilled birth attendant.
The prevalence of contraceptive use among women
aged 15–49 years who were married or in a consensual
union increased globally from 55% in 1990 to 64%
in 2012. Unmet need – defined as the proportion of
women who are married or in a union who want to stop
or postpone childbearing but are not using contraception
– declined from 15% in 1990 to 12% in 2012.
Although the WHO African Region had the lowest total
demand for family planning in 2012 it also had the
highest level of unmet need at 24% (Fig. 4).
Worldwide, the proportion of women receiving antenatal
care at least once during pregnancy was 83% for
the period 2007–2014. However, only 64% of pregnant
women received the recommended minimum of four
antenatal care visits or more, suggesting that large
expansions in antenatal care coverage are still needed.
In addition, despite increasing coverage of delivery by
a skilled birth attendant both globally and in several
regions, coverage is still only 51% in the WHO African
Region and in low-income countries.