PHM-Exch> Fwd: [health-vn] Efforts to boost maternal and child health falling short, UN report finds

[Claudio Schuftan]

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



 http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35118&Cr=maternal&Cr1=

  Efforts to boost maternal and child health falling short, UN report finds


23 June 2010 – An annual assessment report released today by the United
Nations shows that while significant declines have been recorded by many
countries in reducing maternal and child mortality, greater progress must be
made to meet the global targets contained in the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs <http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/>).

First agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, the eight MDGs
set worldwide objectives for reducing extreme poverty and hunger, improving
health and education, empowering women and ensuring environmental
sustainability by 2015.

According to the MDG Report 2010,
launched<http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=4629> by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, the number of deaths among
children under the age of five has dropped from 12.6 million in 1990 to an
estimated 8.8 million in 2008.

The greatest advances were made in Northern Africa, Eastern Asia, Western
Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the countries of the
Confederation of Independent States (CIS).

But most striking is the progress that has been made in some of the world’s
poorest countries. Bangladesh, Bolivia, Eritrea, Laos, Malawi, Mongolia and
Nepal have all reduced their under-five mortality rates by 4.5 per cent
annually or more.

“Despite these achievements, and the fact that most child deaths are
preventable or treatable, many countries still have unacceptably high levels
of child mortality and have made little or no progress in recent years,”
stated the report.

The highest rates of child mortality continue to be found in sub-Saharan
Africa, which accounted for half of the 8.8 million deaths in children under
five worldwide in 2008.

The publication pointed out that child deaths are not falling quickly enough
to reach Goal 4, namely a two-thirds reduction in childhood mortality rates
between 1990 and 2015, and millions of children continue to die each year at
a tragically young age.

Likewise, progress has been recorded by many countries on maternal
mortality, and the latest preliminary data indicate that some countries have
achieved significant declines. Maternal health is difficult to measure but
the report showed that the rural-urban gap in skilled care during childbirth
has narrowed, and more women are receiving skilled health care during
pregnancy.

However, it also stated that the rate of reduction in maternal deaths is
still well short of the 5.5 per cent annual reduction needed to meet the
target under Goal 5 – slashing maternal mortality rates by three quarters
between 1990 and 2015.

Hundreds of thousands of women – 99 per cent of them in the developing world
– die annually as a result of pregnancy or childbirth.

The MDG report reflects the most comprehensive, up-to-date data compiled by
over 25 UN and international agencies, and has been released ahead of the
Group of Eight (G8) and Group of 20 (G20) summits for leading economies,
being held this weekend in Canada, which the Secretary-General will be
attending.

“In Canada, I will urge leaders to support our global action plan on women’s
and children’s health. In the 21st century, it is unacceptable that mothers
should be dying during childbirth,” Mr. Ban told reporters as he presented
the report.

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA<http://www.unfpa.org/public/>),
welcomed the MDG report’s indication of progress, with some nations
significantly reducing maternal death ratios.

“However, as the report notes, the reductions fall far below the rates
required to meet the MDG target,” she stated. “Therefore, to speed up
progress, we must invest more in reproductive health for women and girls. If
every woman received reproductive health care, maternal death and disability
would cease to be the devastatingly common tragedy it is today.”

In April the Secretary-General launched an initiative for a joint action
plan among governments, businesses, foundations and civil society
organizations to advance safe motherhood worldwide.

“For too long, maternal and child health has been at the back of the MDG
train,” he had stated during that launch. “But we know it can be the engine
of development,” he continued, citing women as drivers of progress and
healthy children as the starting point for a stronger, better educated and
more productive citizenry.

Mr. Ban, who himself was born not in a hospital but at home in a small
village in his native Republic of Korea, urged that everything be done to
make motherhood safer for all and to end what he described as a “silent
scandal.”
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