Goal #5Maternal Health
Introduction
Many people consider the day their child was born the happiest day in their life. In the world's wealthier countries, that is. In poorer countries, the day a child born is all too often the day its mother dies. The lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth in Africa is 1 in 22, while it is 1 in 120 in Asia and 1 in 7,300 in developed countries.
The Targets
Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015 to:
- Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio.
- Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.
Did You Know?
More than half a million women die in pregnancy and childbirth every year - that's one death every minute. Of these deaths, 99 per cent are in developing countries. The lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth in Africa is 1 in 22, while it is 1 in 120 in Asia and 1 in 7,300 in developed countries.(Source:UNFPA)
Achieving the Goals
In the mid-1990s, the Honduran government adopted a four point plan to fight maternal deaths. The nation also initiated a monitoring system to determine the cause of death in all recorded maternal mortality cases. Five years later, Honduras had reduced its maternal mortality rate by half.
Goal News
Nairobi, Kenya – Kibera, one of East Africa’s biggest informal settlements, played host to the launch of the East African Caravan on Maternal Health in Nairobi, Kenya on July 3. In attendance were women, men, boys and girls, UN representatives, Ambassadors, representatives from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, medical doctors and other dignitaries.
The caravan makes its journey through Kenya into Tanzania and Rwanda before arriving in Kampala, Uganda on July 14, ahead of the 15th Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union.
New Analysis Reveals African Countries Top List of 20 Countries Making Most Overall Progress on MDGs
As G-8 and G-20 leaders prepare to gather in Canada, new analysis issued by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the United Nations Millennium Campaign finds that, in absolute terms, many of the world’s poorest countries are making the most overall progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of promises world leaders made to significantly reduce extreme poverty, illiteracy and disease by 2015.
Kigali — A new program that seeks to reduce maternal mortality was launched yesterday by the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) Rwanda, an advocacy and campaign group set up to accelerate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Gender Cluster Coordinator in Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Egidia Rukundo, hailed GCAP Rwanda for the initiative and called upon stakeholders to mobilise and motivate Rwandans to end maternal deaths.
