PHA-Exch> UN-backed scheme aims to reduce maternal mortality by boosting health systems

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at cairo.anu.edu.au


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28262&Cr=Maternal+Health&Cr1=

UN-backed scheme aims to reduce maternal mortality by boosting health
systems


25 September 2008 – The United Nations has teamed up with world leaders to
launch a new initiative to strengthen health systems in an effort to reduce
the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth, one of the eight
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) world leaders with a 2015 deadline.
The task force on maternal mortality, which will be co-chaired by British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, will
focus on innovative financing to strengthen health care systems and pay for
health care workers.

The recommendations that will flow from the group, which will include UN
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan and several
global leaders, will potentially save the lives of 10 million women and
children by 2015. They will be presented to next year's meeting of the
leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations, to be held in
Italy.

"Despite two decades of efforts, the world failed to make a dent in the high
number of maternal deaths," Ms. Chan told a news conference in New York,
attributing the lack of progress to insufficient investment in health
systems, the training of health workers and the strengthening of facilities
and services.

"We still have time, but just barely, to make up for this failure," she
added.

Welcoming the task force announced today, she stressed that it will take
additional resources, "over and above what has already been committed," to
strengthen health systems.

According to WHO, around 500,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every
year – about one woman every minute. Nearly all maternal deaths – 99 per
cent – occur in developing countries, and half of those are in Africa.

"The number of maternal deaths will not go down until more women have access
to skilled attendants at birth and to emergency obstetric care," Ms. Chan
stressed.

In a joint statement issued, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN
Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank and WHO pledged to enhance support
over the next five years to the countries with the highest maternal
mortality.

Their efforts aim to help countries achieve the two MDG 5 targets of
reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent and achieving universal access to
reproductive health by 2015, as well as contribute to achieving MDG 4 on
reducing child mortality.

UNFPA's Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, has called on Member States
to speed up efforts for reproductive, maternal and newborn health, noting
that the world will not achieve the MDGs without more investment in the
health and rights of women and ensuring universal access to reproductive
health.

"It would cost the world $6 billion, less than a day-and-a-half of military
spending, to stop women from dying in childbirth. We urge all governments to
step up funding for reproductive health and save women's lives."
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