UN Joins in New Global Partnership to Slash Maternal and Child
Mortality
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New York, Sep 12 2005 10:00AM
The world's leading maternal, newborn and child health profes-
sionals formally joined forces for the first time today in a
United Nations-backed initiative to tackle a crisis that each
year sees more than 500,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth
and nearly 11 million children succumb to mostly preventable
diseases.
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, a mile-
stone in a growing global focus on the health of women and chil-
dren, aims to boost efforts to achieve two of the eight Millen-
nium Development Goals (MDGs) - slashing by two thirds the mor-
tality rate among children under five and cutting by three quar-
ters the maternal mortality ratio, both by 2015.
"If the world is to meet the goals of reducing maternal and un-
der-five mortality by 2015, only a focused, coordinated effort
can bring women, newborns and children the health care they need
during pregnancy, delivery, the early weeks of life and in
childhood," UN World Health Organization WHO Lee Jong-wook said.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr41/en/index.html
"By working with countries to increase access to existing health
care solutions, this Partnership has the potential to transform
millions of lives and make critical progress," he added.
The Partnership unites developing and donor countries, UN agen-
cies, professional associations, academic and research institu-
tions, foundations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
intensify and harmonize national, regional and global progress
towards the two MDGs.
It is a merger of three existing collaborations focused on ma-
ternal, newborn and child health and will be hosted by the Ge-
neva-based WHO.
While some countries have made progress, at current rates the
world is not on track to achieve the two MDGs, which are part of
a programme adopted by the UN Millennium Summit of 2000 to slash
a host of socioeconomic ills, such as extreme poverty and hun-
ger, all by 2015.
The Partnership will begin immediately to work with national
leaders on delivering the much-advocated 'continuum of care' ap-
proach to countries. In recent publications including the WHO's
World Health Report 2005, leading global health experts agree
that progress begins when a women's health needs are addressed
at the same time as her child's.