A/RES/63/158 (c) To strengthen the capacity of health systems, in particular public health systems, to provide the essential services needed to prevent obstetric fistula and to treat those cases that do occur by providing the continuum of services, including family planning, prenatal care, skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric care and post-partum care, to young women and girls, including those living in poverty and in underserved rural areas where obstetric fistula is most common; (d) To strengthen research, monitoring and evaluation systems, including community-based notification of obstetric fistula cases and maternal and newborn deaths, to guide the implementation of maternal health programmes; (e) To provide essential health services, equipment and supplies and skills training and income-generating projects to women and girls so that they can break out of a cycle of poverty; (f) To mobilize funding to provide free or subsidized fistula repairs, including through encouraging more networking among providers and the sharing of new treatment techniques and protocols; (g) To provide health education, rehabilitation and reintegration counselling, including medical counselling, as key components of post-operative care; (h) To bring obstetric fistula to the attention of policymakers and communities, thereby reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with it and helping women and girls suffering from obstetric fistula so that they can overcome abandonment and social exclusion together with the psychosocial implications thereof, inter alia, through the support of social reintegration projects; (i) To educate individual women and men, girls and boys, communities, policymakers and health professionals about how obstetric fistula can be prevented and treated and increase awareness of the needs of pregnant women and girls, including their right to the highest attainable standard of health, through working with community and religious leaders, traditional birth attendants, media, radio stations, influential public figures and policymakers, support the training of doctors, midwives, nurses and other health workers in lifesaving obstetric care, and include training on fistula repair, treatment and care as a standard element of health professionals’ training curricula; (j) To develop means of transportation and financing that enable women and girls to access obstetric care and treatment, and provide incentives and other means to secure the presence in rural areas of qualified health professionals who are able to perform interventions to prevent obstetric fistula; Encourages communication and networking among existing fistula 9. centres to facilitate training, research, advocacy and fund-raising and the development and application of relevant standards, including Obstetric Fistula: Guiding Principles for Clinical Management and Programme Development, published in 2006 by the World Health Organization, which provides background information along with principles for developing fistula prevention and treatment strategies and programmes; 10. Urges the international community to address the shortages of doctors, midwives, nurses and other health workers trained in lifesaving obstetric care, and of space and supplies, which limit the capacity of most of the fistula centres; 11. Urges multilateral donors, and invites international financial institutions, within their respective mandates, and regional development banks to review and implement policies to support national efforts to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reaches young women and girls, in particular in rural and remote areas; 4