Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top
There are now an estimated 287,000 maternal deaths per year, according to UN partners/AFP-File

Kenya

$20 billion for women, children’s health

Fragile gains
Progress is occurring, but it remains fragile and uneven, concurs Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health for UNICEF and co-chair of the Countdown to 2015 movement, which tracks progress towards achieving the Millennium Development health goals for women and children. “National governments and donors must maintain their efforts and investments in maternal and child health. We are excited that even the poorest countries are making big steps forward in terms of money, services and care for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health,” Chopra says.

The UN attributes the recent gains in mortality reduction to such factors as greater access to skilled delivery care, use of contraception, and increases in female literacy, as well as the spread of new and more effective vaccines, treatment to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, increases in use of insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria in children, and improved nutrition, including vitamin A supplementation.

Efforts to meet Millennium Development Goals
The current emphasis on women and children’s health dates to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000. MDG 4 calls for a two-thirds reduction in the deaths of children under five by 2015 compared to 1990. MDG 5 calls for three-quarters reduction in maternal deaths and universal access to family planning by 2015, compared to 1990.

In its recent report, Countdown to 2015, which focuses on progress in the 75 highest-burden countries where 95 percent of maternal and young child deaths occur, found that:

On reducing maternal deaths: Annual maternal deaths are down by 47 percent over the past two decades. Nine Countdown countries are on track to meet their 2015 MDG 5 goal by reducing the maternal mortality rate by 75 percent. But more than a third of the 75 Countdown countries have made little, if any, progress.

On reducing deaths of children under age 5: Twenty-three Countdown countries are expected to achieve MDG 4. But 13 countries have made no progress in reducing child deaths.

About The Author

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News