Experts Urge Major Effort to Meet UN Millennium Goals on Mater-
nal, Child Deaths
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from Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel@undp.org>
New York, Apr 12 2005 12:00PM
With inadequate progress being made towards meeting the United
Nations Millennium Development Goals
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) of slashing maternal and
child deaths by 2015, a meeting of experts from around the world
has called for a major cooperative effort that could save the
lives of 7 million women, newborns and children each year.
"Only through coordinated and concerted action and unprecedented
resource mobilization at the national and international levels
can we hope to meet our commitments by the target year," health
officials, medical professionals and advocates declared at the
close of a three-day forum at the weekend in New Delhi, India.
Appealing for "strong partnerships that include governments, de-
velopment partners, donors, civil society, the private sector
and others," the conference declaration called on donors to
close an estimated $9 billion annual shortfall in funding for
maternal and child health programmes.
The underlying theme of the meeting "Lives in the Balance: The
Partnership Meeting on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health" was
the lack of progress many countries have made towards meeting
the MDGs on maternal and child deaths, seen as key steps in
eliminating extreme poverty, another major MDG set by the UN
Millennium Summit of 2000.
"Cost-effective interventions, if taken to scale worldwide, can
prevent close to three-fourths of maternal deaths, and over two-
thirds of child deaths," the declaration said. "Thus, we have
'almost within reach' the means to save nearly 7 million lives
each year."
To achieve this, countries need to "invest in strengthening
health systems, from community to the referral levels," tailor-
ing programmes to fit national and community needs, and specifi-
cally ensuring that they reach and benefit the poor, the margin-
alized and the underserved.
"This has been a very productive and inspiring meeting, one that
has taken full advantage of the depth and diversity of experi-
ence among the participants," UN Population Fund Deputy Execu-
tive Director Kunio Waki told the closing session. "Our shared
commitment to health and equity has strengthened our mutual de-
termination to redress the shameful and unjust gaps in coverage
for mothers, newborns and children."
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news