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. In high-fertility countries in sub-Saharan Africa, women have a one in 16 chance of dying in childbirth. In low-fertility countries in Europe, this number is one in 2,000 and in North America it's one in 3,500.
The Targets
Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals sets out by the year 2015 to:
- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.
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. In parts of Africa, maternal mortality rates are 1 in 16. (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
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health has called on G8 leaders to fulfil their previous commitments to global health and commit to new, long-term financing for essential interventions that could avert the deaths of over 6 million mothers, newborns and children every year.
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health has called on G8 leaders to fulfil their previous commitments to global health and commit to new, long-term financing for essential interventions that could avert the deaths of over 6 million mothers, newborns and children every year.
CAPE TOWN – Leading global health experts, policy-makers and parliamentarians convened in Cape Town last week to address the urgent need for accelerated progress to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths, if internationally-agreed targets are to be met.
A new World Bank-IMF report warns that most countries will fall short on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight globally agreed development goals with a due date of 2015.
Though much of the world is set to cut extreme poverty in half by then, prospects are gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality. Serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition, and sanitation goals.
According to the draft Health Service Development Plan (HSDP) joint UNDP and Ministry of Heath report of 2005, the per capita health service expenditure of Ethiopia is rated at 5.9 US dollars, the least among a list of other developing countries such as Kenya (31 USD), Uganda(18 USD), and Tanzania(8 USD). The report also indicated that in order to meet MDGs Ethiopia needs to increase the health service expenditure to 34 USD.
