E/2010/27 E/CN.6/2010/11 education, including vocational programmes, is an important complement to formal education. Participants emphasized the need to ensure that the educational gains of women and girls translate into better employment opportunities. 6. The right to bodily integrity, including sexual and reproductive health, is fundamental to gender equality and women’s human rights. Women continue to face preventable health challenges. Even though the maternal mortality rate in some countries has decreased, progress has been limited in regard to reproductive health. Achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5, on improving maternal health, continues to fall behind and the area urgently requires increased investment. Every day, at least 1,500 women and adolescent girls die of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. Almost all maternal deaths could be prevented through interventions such as safe motherhood programmes, free maternal health care, recruitment of competent birth attendants and emergency obstetric care. Women must be able to determine for themselves the spacing and the number of their children. Well-functioning health systems are critical for addressing the specific health needs of women and girls. During the past decade, funding for women’s health remained stagnant. It is estimated that US$ 24 billion per year is needed to significantly decrease maternal deaths, an amount that is equivalent to six days of global military spending. 7. Pregnancy rates remain high for adolescent girls owing to teenage pregnancies, as well as the practice of early and child marriages in some countries. National laws are needed to prevent child marriage, together with other measures, including marriage registration systems, incentive schemes to keep girls in school and programmes to mobilize communities. 8. Within the context of Millennium Development Goal 6, the feminization of HIV and AIDS continues to cause great concern. Young women are more susceptible to HIV infection and in many countries they have a higher HIV prevalence rate than men. Measures are needed to ensure women’s access to prevention, treatment and care. Other key interventions include sex education for girls and boys and behavioural change programmes. 9. Violence against women is an obstacle to the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and carries great economic costs and personal suffering. The number of international and national initiatives to address violence against women has increased as many countries strengthen laws, policies and institutions to end violence against women. Participants commended the Secretary-General’s campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women” in increasing momentum for efforts to address violence against women. Action is needed to ensure that interventions to prevent and eliminate violence against women are comprehensive, fully implemented and monitored, and sustainable across all sectors, including health, education and employment. 10. Women’s economic empowerment is central to the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Gender equality perspectives have, however, been largely ignored in the formulation of macroeconomic policies, which have differential impacts on women and men. A shift in the current macroeconomic policy framework and 10-30576 39