Jan Eliasson Photo Credit Dominic Chavez

As originally seen at Global Post.

Ambassador Jan Eliasson is the former President of the United Nations General Assembly and Sweden’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs. He currently is on Aspen Global Health and Development’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health. Eliasson spoke to writer John Donnelly about how water and sanitation play in saving women’s lives and about how the explosive issue of abortion has hurt the support for family planning.

How did you get involved in the issues surrounding women’s reproductive rights?

I did this in a roundabout way. For many years, I have worked intensely in Africa. I was in Somalia in the 1990s, and more recently I was mediating in the Darfur conflict. With you deal with these conflicts, you have to go out in the villages and see the realities. I’ve been struck by how water and sanitation is an enormous problem in this area, which has ramifications for the lives of women and children. After I got back from Darfur in 2008, I established Water Aid-Sweden. Having now worked on water and sanitation issues for two years, I see that there is a need to link issues between water and sanitation and the issues affecting women.

How so?

We don’t realize when you look at the issues of child mortality, women’s health, or education, all the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) are affected by water and sanitation. I see a real need for a horizontal approach to health. Population issues and family planning are an integrated part of solving that problem.

What’s your strategy to make these issues move to the forefront?

Before I worked in the United Nations, and the government of Sweden, but now I see myself representing civil society. I believe I can add to the knowledge of how to work in the corridors of the United Nations or in European politics. I want to bring much more attention to the situation of women and children in the field. I am upset and angry about the neglect on family planning issues. 

Why is family planning so difficult for policymakers?

Family planning touches on values, culture and traditions, and it’s especially hard when people from the outside come and suggest how things should be organized in a society where traditions have been pretty much perpetuating problems. You touch on the culture sensitivities.

Finish reading Jan Eliasson's Q&A at Global Post.