Sudan

Baroness Tonge Excerpts

Thursday 28th June 2018 Grand Committee

[Baroness Tonge (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, on securing this debate and thank him for giving me the opportunity to look at the conditions for women and women’s health in the Sudan on our visit.

The situation for women in Sudan has changed little in the 10 years since I was last there despite over 30% of parliamentarians being women, many occupying important positions, as we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin. The maternal mortality rate is around 300 per 100,000 live births. That is very high and has not reduced in the 20 years which have seen the maternal mortality rate in the rest of the world reduced by 40%. This is due to poor healthcare, early marriage and the complications of childbirth, all of which are made worse by the practice of FGM.

The fertility rate—that is, the family size—is above five and contraceptive use is only about 12% of the female population. Abortion is permitted only in cases of rape, incest or to save a woman’s life—that is if they can get anywhere near a hospital, which is unlikely. Many women will die from unsafe abortion as a result. Sudan is a bleak place for women. Only one-third of Sudan’s women access secondary education.

The President, however, produced a maternal health strategy and showed it to us when we were there. The preamble is worth reading. It says:

“Mothers are the source of life/mankind, and our children are the country’s future. No nation will prosper if it does not place their health and welfare at the heart of its development agenda”.


However, as an enthusiast of free choice for women, I found no mention in this strategy of any family planning to be made available, which the World Bank and all development agencies now state is the single most effective way of promoting economic development in a country. I do not apologise for repeating this message: to empower women, they must be given power over their own bodies—and that means access to family planning. If women have free access to contraception they will have fewer children, and they and their children are more likely to access education and eventually contribute to their country’s wealth.

When we met Dr Faisal Hassan Ibrahim, the representative of President Bashir, I broached this subject with him and was rather depressed to be told that: “Sudan is a very big country and needs many more people. Women are needed to have children”. He added that men could have four wives too, and that helped. In other words, women are breeding machines. The Government of Sudan should listen to the World Bank more often.

Finally, I commend the work of the Ahfad University for Women in Khartoum, which my noble friend Lady Uddin spoke about, and especially its work on maternal health. The obstetric hospital there, which we visited, is attached to the university’s faculty of medicine and displayed really excellent modern practices—with protocols such as we have here—but in grossly overcrowded conditions. Women in labour had to share beds; there were at least two to a bed, which must have been quite an experience. The men were in the yard outside and were called in when their women gave birth; there was no room for partners anywhere near the obstetric ward. The training which students receive there is excellent and our NHS benefits hugely from over 6,000 Sudan-trained doctors practising over here. This made me rather ashamed because Sudan needs its doctors desperately—much more than we do.

Therefore, what can our Governmen do to promote maternal health and family planning in Sudan by using the Ahfad University, which is respected all over the world? A new private hospital is planned, but more accessible facilities for women’s health are needed, countrywide. There needs to be a network through which they can get treatment and family planning. I welcome DfID’s emphasis on maternal health and family planning and congratulate it on that. However, could this please be extended and increased to the Sudan as we loosen sanctions and try to encourage that wonderful country?