The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) has adopted a ground-breaking Programme of Action to advance women’s reproductive rights.

The great revelation at the Conference was that when we speak about population we are speaking about people, not just numbers. In Cairo they made their voices heard and the world had to listen.

When the issue of giving girls a chance comes up, the face of one of my patients jumps up from the back of my memory. Let me briefly talk about her. I had three professional encounters with her over a long period of years.

Although maternal mortality has long accounted for a significant proportion of deaths among women of reproductive age in low resource countries, its importance was not always evident from official statistics. The majority of maternal deaths simply went unrecorded, or the cause of death was not specified.