Civil Society, Development & Aid, Gender, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Health, Human Rights, Population, Poverty & SDGs, Women's Health

HEALTH: The Quiet Scandal of 10 Million Deaths

Alexandra Stahl

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 2 2007 (IPS) - A global coalition of governments and organisations has launched a new campaign to drastically improve pre- and post-natal healthcare in places like India, which alone accounts for a staggering 25 percent of the world&#39s child deaths and 20 percent of maternal deaths.

Called "Deliver Now" – a reference to the pledge made by 189 world leaders meeting at the United Nations seven years ago to reduce child deaths by two-thirds and maternal deaths by three-quarters by 2015, among other goals – it brings together local government agencies, civil society, media and others to allocate existing health resources more effectively.

Halfway toward the deadline to achieve the so-called Millennium Development Goals, more than 10 million mothers and children still die every year, mostly from preventable causes. Four million newborns die in their first four weeks of their life, three million in the first week.

"The cause of women&#39s and children&#39s health has remained in the shadows for too long and been neglected on the political agenda," said Dr. Francisco Songane, director of the partnership.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 42 percent of pregnant women around the world experience a complication, of which 15 percent are life-threatening. These problems mostly occur in developing countries: 95 percent of all maternal and newborn deaths worldwide occur in 75 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

According to recent research, at least 7 million of these deaths could be prevented by expanding access to health systems.

"We need more action and more political will. It&#39s a scandal that half a million mothers die each year in pregnancy or when giving birth," said Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister of Norway, who spoke at a recent U.N. panel discussion.

"Millions of women and children can be saved with modest means. We know what to do and it isn&#39t expensive," added Stoltenberg, whose government plans to spend a billion dollars over the next 10 years on maternal and child health programmes around the world.

These relatively simple measures include regular vaccinations, breastfeeding, access to antibiotics and the help of a skilled birth attendant.

The first specific country programmes will start in 2008 in India and Tanzania, which currently faces a critical shortage of qualified health workers to assist during childbirth. Some 54 percent of women receive no skilled attendance; as a result, a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications there every hour of every day.

Aparajita Gogoi, the national coordinator of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, noted that, "The victims of pregnancy-related deaths are poor and politically powerless. It is the NGOs that have to talk to these people and to enlighten them."

Besides Norway, France, Canada, Germany and Britain are also supporting the campaign. Stoltenberg expressed his hope that more donor countries will become engaged.

Experts say that at least 9 billion dollars a year is needed to meet the basic health care needs of women and children. As of 2004, only 2 billion dollars – less than a quarter of what is needed – was available to support such services in developing countries.

The head of the U.N. Population Fund, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, agreed that stronger leadership and commitment to make women&#39s health a priority is critical. "Most important is that we work all together to achieve the goal," she said.

Good health also requires a sound environment and commitment to upholding women&#39s fundamental rights.

"We have to do something about the low status of women in many societies," said Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation. "They have to be empowered, they should be able to fight for their rights."

She also noted that air, water and food, which are affected by the growing problem of climate change, are fundamental determinants of health. Chan expressed her hope that "politicians think further recognising not only climate change&#39s impact on the environment and economy but also that on health."

Rosangela Berman Bieler, a journalist and executive director of the Inter-American Institute on Disability and Inclusive Development, urged that efforts to expand access to healthcare take into account the special needs of the disabled.

"There will be no results when people with disabilities are not involved. I hope that there will develop a society that includes everyone," said the 49-year-old mother, who has been a quadriplegic since suffering an automobile accident in 1976, when she was 19.