Position Paper

“The hopeless don’t revolt because revolution is an act of hope.” – Peter Kropotkin

Committee: United Nation Women

Topic: Challenges and Solutions Regarding Maternal Health Reproductive Rights, Access to
Healthcare and Mental Well-Being
Country: Cote d'Ivoire

Honorable Chairs, Esteemed Delegates,

As a well-known saying often attributed Feminist and politician, Hillary Clinton; “Women
are the Largest Untapped Reservoir of Talent in the World. Cote d’Ivoire is presently not up
to the mark when it is considered about maternal health and healthcare. We think the reasons
for this lies in the old customs. There is a land distribution disparity among the men and
women. The main economy of the country is by producing and exporting cocoa beans and
palm oil. Custom excludes women from land ownership even though they produce and
market most of the food in Côte d’Ivoire. A woman’s access to land is based on her
status within the family and involves only the right of use. Of particular concern is a
widow’s right to remain on the land she farmed while her husband was alive. The
1998 Rural Land Law reverses traditional practices with respect to women and land,
granting those rights equal to those of men. However, to make land rights a reality
will require engagement at the village and family levels. We think it is important for
women’s to have some financial power with them.
We also acknowledge the critical importance of mental health in overall well-being. We
advocate for the destigmatization of mental health issues and the integration of mental health
services into primary healthcare systems. Cote d’Ivoire is a developing country and in 2015 to
2019 we were the fastest GDP per capita growing country in Western Africa. If we talk about
abortion rates more than six out of 10 abortions in Côte d’Ivoire in 2018 were unsafe. Unsafe
abortion is a leading contributor to maternal death and disability around the world and is
estimated to be responsible for more than one in six pregnancy-related deaths in Western
Africa. In 2017, the annual incidence of likely abortions in Cote d'Ivoire was 36.9 per 1,000
women age 15 to 49 when asking women directly – more than 209,000 abortions. To deal
with it the country requires the activists to teach people about the Reproductive health of
women.

Cote d’Ivoire is home to 27.5 million people. With 48 per cent of them as females and when
it comes to their health and position in the society. The government supports leaders like
Fanta Diamande. The Ivorian Ministry of Health’s new health policy centred on women,
places family planning, pregnancy monitoring or HIV screening at the heart of the
restructuring of its health system following the civil war of 2011, with technical and financial
support from UNFPA, the United Nations Fund for Population.

Nature divided us into two beautiful genders and we should take care of both equally
therefore, we demand today for an introduction of a long-term plan for equality and non-
discrimination with provisions to extra funds especially in Education and Healthcare
especially a system that involve women and utilize women’s talents in dexterity and other
motor skills providing needed employment and economic stability in this comically crippled
world of inflation. In developed countries where females are revolting for equal pay similarly
females in our country are demanding for the equal rights nor just in the economic sector but
also in the health sector.

In nutshell, Cote d’Ivoire is committed to working collaboratively with the international

community to advance the agenda on maternal health, reproductive rights, access to
healthcare, and mental well-being. By fostering an inclusive and rights-based approach, we
aim to contribute to the realization of a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable world. We
want the women to get what is theirs and in this revolution we stand with them.