Strategy Women have a right to basic medical care. Healthy women have a greater chance of having healthy children. Access to education and the improvement of the status of women in the family and in society resulting from this have positive effects on the development of their children and of society as a whole. Family planning must be voluntary. Its acceptance depends very much on the chances of survival and the health of the children.
Prevention is cheaper than curative measures.
The principal factors that can lead to advances in the field of social development are the revaluation of the role of women, the improvement of their status in the family and in society and the assurance of their dignity and their human rights. In this sense it has to be ensured that women can assert their rights to basic medical care and reproductive health and their right to freely decide on the size of their family. Reproductive health and family planning should be made accessible as far as possible through the existing system of basic medical care, that is, it should be an integral part of general medical care. As far as family planning is concerned, this must in principle be entirely voluntary. Along with access to basic medical care, prevention programmes are primary concerns in the support that we provide.