Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694573737747.pdf (Australia)
SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY INTO HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES CONFRONTING WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE INDIAN OCEAN – ASIA PACIFIC REGION by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) welcomes the opportunity to make a short submission to this Inquiry.

Introduction: The main focus of SPA is to achieve an ecologically sustainable population, nationally and globally.
We see the main way to achieve such an outcome is through universal access to contraception/family planning in the context of full reproductive health care and rights.

We also believe gender equality and girl’s education are critical in this endeavour.

We are concerned that in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific region women in many countries still suffer violence, inequality, lack of political and economic leadership opportunities and poor access to modern contraception/family planning.
Population growth rates are still very high in the immediate region, for instance, in Timor‐Leste, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, which is an impediment to development overall but can also disempower women if all their energies and attention are devoted to feeding and caring for large families.

It is disheartening to hear anecdotal evidence of cultural acceptance of violence against women in many countries.

It is one of the biggest impediments to women’s progress.
On the other hand, it is extremely heartening to hear of such Australian‐funded programs as the Pacific Young Women’s Leadership Alliance http://www.pacificwomen.org/projects/pacific‐young‐ womens‐leadership‐alliance/ and The Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Project ‐ http://www.pacificparliaments.net/pwpp/index.html#sthash.On1yAE9R.dpuf Access to contraception: Unless women can control their own fertility they have little hope of achieving real equality.
We refer you to the Attachment “World Contraceptive Patterns Wall Chart” and specifically the first two columns (‘any contraceptive method’ and ‘modern method’) after the date when the data was compiled.

For example, for Oceania, Australia and New Zealand have around 70 per cent use of modern contraceptive uptake yet in Micronesia/Melanesia/ Polynesia, it ranges from (though excluding Guam which is a US territory) a low of 17.6 per cent in Kiribati to a high of 38.2% in the Cook Islands.
Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 60 On the Indian Ocean side, along the East African coast, modern contraceptive uptake ranges from the mid‐20s to early 40s (%) but with a shockingly low 1.2% in Somalia and 11.3% in Mozambique.

On the Asian sub‐continent, India and Bangladesh hover around the 50% mark yet Pakistan has a worryingly low 21.7% (for modern contraception).
In south‐east Asia, Thailand has an impressive 77.5% uptake of modern contraception, thanks in part to the impressive efforts of Dr Mechai Viravaidya (Dr Condom).

Indonesia and Vietnam, too, are in the high‐50s yet Timor‐Leste a dismal 20.6%, a country whose Total Fertility Rate still exceeds 5 (children per women).

There appears to be a positive correlation between high uptake of modern contraception and positive development achievements.
The difference between Thailand (77.5%) and Philippines (36.3%) is marked.

Despite its current political troubles, Thailand has pulled itself out of poverty while Philippines remains mired in it.

Population‐Health‐Environment (PHE): There has been success in a number of countries, notably Madagascar and the Philippines, through integrating family planning with development programs such as coastal management.
Blue Ventures is one such organisation http://www.blueventures.org/ which has achieved more success in terms of both environmental management and human welfare by integrating the three factors (PHE) rather than dealing with each separately.

Conclusion: Providing universal access to contraception should be an integral part of any aid program directed at women.
It plays a critical role in women’s empowerment by allowing women to have control over their own bodies and to make the choice when to have children and, hopefully, to have smaller families.

We believe an integrated PHE approach is the most cost‐effective way of enhancing development objectives of which the improvement in women’s lives is a critical component.
Appendix: Attachment “World Contraceptive Patterns Wall Chart” Human rights issues confronting women and girls in the Indian Ocean – Asia Pacific regionSubmission 60