PHA-Exchange> UN JOINS IN NEW GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO SLASH MATERNAL AND CHILD MORTALITY

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>

UN JOINS IN NEW GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP TO SLASH MATERNAL AND CHILD MORTALITY
New York, Sep 12 2005 10:00AM
The world’s leading maternal, newborn and child health professionals
formally joined forces for the
first time today in a United Nations-backed initiative to tackle a crisis
that each year sees more
than 500,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth and nearly 11 million
children succumb to mostly
preventable diseases.

The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, a milestone in a
growing global focus on the
health of women and children, aims to boost efforts to achieve two of the
eight Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) - slashing by two thirds the mortality rate among
children under five and
cutting by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio, both by 2015.

“If the world is to meet the goals of reducing maternal and under-five
mortality by 2015, only a
focused, coordinated effort can bring women, newborns and children the
health care they need during
pregnancy, delivery, the early weeks of life and in childhood,” UN World
Health Organization
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr41/en/index.html">WHO
) Lee Jong-wook said.

“By working with countries to increase access to existing health care
solutions, this Partnership
has the potential to transform millions of lives and make critical
 progress,” he added.

The Partnership unites developing and donor countries, UN agencies,
professional associatMations,
academic and research institutions, foundations, and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) to
intensify and harmonize national, regional and global progress towards the
two MDGs.

It is a merger of three existing collaborations focused on maternal, newborn
and child health and
will be hosted by the Geneva-based WHO.

While some countries have made progress, at current rates the world is not
on track to achieve the
two MDGs, which are part of a programme adopted by the UN Millennium Summit
of 2000 to slash a host
of socioeconomic ills, such as extreme poverty and hunger, all by 2015.

The Partnership will begin immediately to work with national leaders on
delivering the
much-advocated ‘continuum of care’ approach to countries. In recent
publications including the WHO's
World Health Report 2005, leading global health experts agree that progress
begins when a women's
health needs are addressed at the same time as her child's.