Maternal and Child Health in Focus 2010
Rachel Maranto of Save the Children shares some good news for maternal health from an unlikely place: Afghanistan.
Sakila. Photo credit: Rachel Maranto/Save the Children
This is Sakila. Fourteen years ago she nearly died giving birth to her son.
“I was giving birth at home, there were complications and I fell unconscious. Eventually my family found a way to get me to a doctor. I was lucky I survived.”
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Initiatives worth $40 billion don’t often go unnoticed, so you may have seen that on Wednesday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launched the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health (PDF), a plan designed to accelerate progress toward Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 by galvanizing global commitments around a comprehensive plan. The Secretary-General’s office announced that the commitments made so far will:
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From online petitions to angry baby protests, it’s hard to miss ONE’s focus on the Global Fund and our goal to ensure that virtually no child is born with HIV by 2015. But throughout this campaign, many of you have rightfully asked, “How does this exactly work?”
It’s a miracle of modern medical technology that we’re able to prevent the mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). To help you understand, we’ve created a CliffsNotes version of how it works:
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Famine in Niger affects 12 million – Expensive imports and aid remain out of reach for 12 million people in Niger – 80 percent of the population – which is facing the worst food crisis in years. Aid organizations say that the immediate obstacle preventing them from meeting urgent food needs is a donor shortfall of more than $100 million. (Afua Hirsch, The Guardian)
Horn of Africa once again polio-free – The Horn of Africa is again polio-free, with Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda having reported no cases for more than a year, said UNICEF. The victory is attributed to a series of multi-country immunization campaigns, along with greater technical support and strong political engagement. (Peter Mutai, Xinhua News)
Make Maternal Health Priority, African Leaders Told – Speaking at last week’s African Union summit, the Deputy U.N. Secretary-General maintained that women and children are the “engines” driving future economic growth on the continent, and that leaders must making meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goal deadline of improving child and maternal health a priority. (Abimbola Akosile, AllAfrica.com)
Kenyans to Vote on Controversial Constitution – Kenyans will vote on a controversial new constitution this week—the latest step by the nation’s leaders to bring political change to their country to quell tribal tensions. The U.S maintains a new constitution is central to this effort. (Sarah Childress, Wall Street Journal)
New focus on Sanitation in Burkina Faso – Burkina Faso has embarked on the construction of 55,000 latrines each year for the next five years to improve access to proper sanitation by more than 40 percent. The new initiative was spurred by findings that the current pace is insufficient to attain the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation in a context of rapid population growth. (Brahima Ouédraogo, IPS)
We must do better against malaria, says President – Following this week’s African Union summit, Tanzanian President, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, asserts that leaders must do more to eliminate all preventable malaria deaths, starting with the goal of reaching universal mosquito-net coverage by the end of this year. (The Guardian)
New TB test must reach more people, says WHO – A new diagnostic tool that reduces to two hours the time needed to detect drug-resistant tuberculosis must be made available to populations vulnerable to the disease, a World Health Organization expert said. “These tools are very expensive, but the scale up should be carefully planned,” said one WHO adviser. (Reuters)
Millions awarded for TB and HIV/AIDS fight in Uganda – The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has been awarded $38 million by USAID to provide integrated TB and HIV/AIDS services in the southwest region of Uganda. The new program seeks to support health service delivery at the district level to provide comprehensive services in the region.” (Rosebell Kagumire, The Independent)
African leaders must focus on maternal health – Ex-Irish president Mary Robinson urged African leaders to boost support for maternal health, during a visit to Sierra Leone where mortality rates are among the highest in the world. “If the African Union succeeds in fulfilling its commitment to maternal health, it will benefit the economies of countries to have healthy populations,” she said. (AFP)
Flower power in Kenya – Slate explores the burgeoning flower industry in Kenya’s Rift Valley, where ambitious plans of turning the country into a global powerhouse are blooming into reality. Though environmentalists may disagree with some of the growing methods, one farmer asserts, “We are branding ourselves as a flower-growing country.” (Alexis Okeowo, Slate)
In the wake of the G8 in Canada, during which wealthy nations gathered to discuss and pledge their commitments to maternal, newborn, and child health, African leaders met this week in Uganda for the 15th African Union Summit. Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Africa regional director of Partners in Population & Development, gives us his take on the Summit’s discussions and how he sees momentum from the Summit carrying forward into this fall’s MDG Summit in New York City and beyond.
No more excuses. That was the main message coming out of Kampala this past week after the 15th African Union Summit brought African leaders and high-ranking ministers together under the auspices of “maternal, infant and child health and development in Africa.”
In a debate session that lasted more than twice the allotted time, African leaders discussed the critical role of maternal health in moving the African continent forward. Leaders also agreed to renew the Maputo Plan of Action (PDF), a critical framework that ensures the rights and health of women and girls on issues of education, safe abortion, family planning and economic opportunity. Having it signed, in place and ready to be actualized is absolutely imperative.
No more excuses — we must address maternal health and women’s rights issues in Africa. While there has been outstanding leadership on these issues from all over the continent, our maternal health indicators continue to dwindle at the utmost bottom, globally. The vastness of the African continent, coupled with the severity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the levels of poverty in many parts of our countries mean that the road to improving maternal health could not be harder.
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Every year, approximately 350,000 mothers die from complications during child birth and 8.8 million children die before their fifth birthday. We are desperately off track to achieving the Millennium Development Goals on child and maternal health and expectations were high for the G8 summit to deliver results.
Yesterday, the G8 announced the Muskoka Initiative on maternal, newborn, and child health. Although Canada deserves some credit for putting maternal and child health in the developing world on the G8 agenda this weekend, world leaders have not done enough to truly turn the tide on this vital issue.
At ONE, we campaigned for a robust maternal and child health initiative at this year’s G8 summit and for it to be accompanied by a concrete accountability framework. We also delivered a petition signed by more than 60,000 of you to world leaders to push them to deliver for the world’s more vulnerable – mothers and children.
While we were disappointed in the total G8 pledge of $5 billion to the Maternal and Child Health Initiative, our efforts elevated this issue, raised awareness, and will raise the bar for world leaders to address this and the other Millennium Development Goals at the UN Summit in September.
