E/2012/27 E/CN.6/2012/16 approach and the provision of proven and well-known evidence-based interventions and to reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality and morbidity, including through a continuum of services, including family planning, prenatal care, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care and post-partum care, including for those living in poverty and in underserved rural areas, Noting the negative health effects of early pregnancy and early childbearing, acknowledging the direct health benefit of school attendance for young girls, in the light of the link between years of school attendance and delay in childbirth, including evidence that each additional year of schooling delays the age at which a girl has her first child by approximately six to ten months and that each year of schooling reduces by 14 per cent the likelihood of a girl under 18 having a child, to 23 per cent, Emphasizing the commitment to provide universal access to reproductive health by 2015 and the need to integrate family planning, sexual health and healthcare services in national strategies and programmes, and to ensure that all women, men and young people have information about, access to and a choice of the widest possible range of family planning options, including safe, effective, affordable and acceptable modern methods of contraception, Emphasizing also the importance of strengthening affordable and sustainable health systems that deliver equitable health outcomes, including by improving basic infrastructure and human and technical resources, Expressing concern about the slow pace of progress in improving maternal, newborn and child health and the inadequate resources for their health, and noting the continuing inequalities among and within Member States, the lack of appreciation of the impact of maternal, newborn and child health on sustainable socio-economic development and the continuing need to address gender inequalities, Stressing the importance of strengthening health systems to better respond to women’s health needs in terms of access, comprehensiveness and quality, and underlining the need to address women’s health through comprehensive strategies targeting root causes of gender inequality in health care, including unequal and limited access to health-care services, Stressing also that with accelerated progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5, it could become possible to envisage, in the not too distant future, a world where preventable maternal mortality has been eliminated, Calls upon Member States and the international community to strongly 1. commit at all levels to the elimination of the persistent and unacceptably high global rate of maternal mortality and morbidity; Urges government authorities and other leaders at the international, 2. regional, national and local levels to generate the political will, increased resources, commitment, international cooperation and technical assistance urgently required to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and improve maternal and newborn health; Calls upon Member States to fully and effectively implement the Beijing 3. Platform for Action,4 the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (“Cairo Programme of Action”)26 and the outcomes of their review conferences, including the commitments relating to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, and the promotion and protection of all 12-27405 17