Heike Barkawitz
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2008 (IPS) – As world leaders gather at the United Nations to discuss progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Presidents Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Tarja Halonen of Finland, and Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania are calling for more attention to be paid to maternal and child health.
In too many countries of Africa women s ability to survive childbirth remains a matter of chance, Kikwete stressed at a special event Thursday on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
Improving maternal and child health embodied in MDG four (to reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate) and five (to reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio, and to achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health) is often referred to as the heart of the MDGs , because the achievement of the other MDGs depends on the success of these two.
The other six MDGs also with a target deadline of 2015 include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.
Bachelet, Halonen and Kikwete asked heads of state, heads of U.N. agencies, senior government officials, civil society organisations, foundations and private sector companies present at the event to renew their commitments to maternal and child health and introduce specific initiatives.
We will not achieve the MDGs unless we invest more in the health and rights of women and ensure universal access to reproductive health. The MDGs were designed to put our world on a more secure and sustainable path. And it is hard to envision a safe future without safe motherhood, Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), pointed out.
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Chile, Finland and Tanzania announced that they had each strengthened their commitments to improve maternal and child health. In September Chile launched a regional campaign in Santiago entitled Deliver now for women and children to reduce child mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Finland has joined the International Health Partnership (IHP) to promote more a coherent approach to health sector cooperation at the country level.
Tanzania made health care for pregnant women free.
However, MDGs four and five are the least likely to be met in virtually all the regions of the world, Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), told reporters.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg added that MDG five was one goal where we hardly make any progress at all due to ignorance, neglect and discrimination against women.
German Federal Minister of Development Cooperation Heidemarie Weiczorek- Zeul added, I was just reflecting what would have happened to the MDGs four and five if men were to give birth to children. We would have reached them.
The facts are daunting. Each year, half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth. This adds up to 10 million preventable deaths in a generation. After giving birth, 10 to 15 million women suffer serious or long-lasting illnesses or injuries costing the world 15 billion dollars in lost productivity annually.
Additionally, about three million newborns die each year during the first week of their lives and approximately three million babies are stillborn.
The majority of maternal and child deaths occur in Africa and South Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa increasingly bearing the global burden of mortality, according to the report Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival , launched at the second Countdown to 2015 Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in Apr. 2008. Altogether, 68 developing countries account for 97 percent of maternal and child deaths worldwide.
An estimated six million of these lives could be saved every year, if women, newborns and children in developing nations gained access to basic health services, according to UNFPA.
But despite all the discouraging facts, Stoltenberg believes that MDGs four and five can still be achieved by the year 2015, if the world mobilises more financial resources, spends money in a more effective way and increases awareness .
UNFPA in cooperation with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), for instance, launched a new initiative to tackle the severe lack of midwives in developing countries. The initiative will begin in eleven of the hardest-hit countries with the highest levels of maternal deaths and disability, and the lowest rates of births attended by skilled workers Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia and will later expand to include at least 30 more countries.
The WHO estimates that there is a need for an additional 334,000 midwives. A skilled attendant at delivery backed up by emergency obstetric care could reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth by about 75 percent.
We need some strong advocates who can call on governments to invest in much needed midwives. But we also need to work with governments to ensure the scaling up and quality of midwifery services. They need to take ownership, ICM President Bridget Lynch said.
In her speech, Bachelet called for governments and especially for industrialised countries to put underway more initiatives and to call for more financing. We need to promote global and regional initiatives, inviting the governments to participate, and a coordinated action of international organisations. Beyond that, she appealed for a widespread global awareness and for transferring new commitments into action .
It is estimated that 5 billion dollars will be required annually by 2010 and an additional 8 billion dollars will be required annually by 2015, according to Kikwete. Raising these additional resources is the question. It s a question of mobilising political will. But what is 5 billion dollars in a world where the total GDP is worth hundreds of trillions?
