Better-funded, More Equitable Health Care Could Save Millions of Women and Children, Experts Say

NEW DELHI—The lives of 7 million women, newborns and children could be saved each year if health programmes were refocused to overcome inequality and scaled up to provide wider access to proven, cost-effective measures, experts meeting here agreed on Saturday.

Health officials, medical professionals, and advocates from around the world took part in "Lives in the Balance: The Partnership Meeting on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health". At the close of the three-day forum last Saturday, participants presented a consensus statement, the Delhi Declaration, to Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of India’s National Advisory Council.

The meeting was hosted by the Indian Government and three international coalitions that are moving towards closer coordination: the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, the Healthy Newborn Partnership and the Child Survival Partnership. Health ministers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Ethiopia, India, Mali, Mozambique, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda were joined by officials from Nepal and representatives of international agencies, development partners and civil society groups.

The underlying theme was the inadequate progress many countries have made towards meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5, which call for deep reductions in maternal and child deaths between 1990 and 2015, as key steps in eliminating extreme poverty. "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," participants declared.

Discussions addressed successes and challenges in maternal, newborn and child health, focusing on strengthening the health sector, family and community involvement, costing and financing, and monitoring progress.

"Each year, pregnancy and childbirth claim the lives of over half a million women. In addition, more than 10 million children, including 4 million newborns, die each year,” the Declaration states. "Cost-effective interventions, if taken to scale worldwide, can prevent close to three fourths of maternal deaths, and over two thirds of child deaths. Thus, we have – almost within reach – the means to save nearly 7 million lives each year."

To achieve this progress, participants agreed, countries need to "invest in strengthening health systems, from community to the referral levels", tailoring programmes to fit national and community needs, and specifically ensuring that "interventions reach and benefit the poor, the marginalized and the underserved".

Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health should be integrated, ensuring a continuum of care from pregnancy through childhood, the Declaration states. It stresses that "universal access to sexual and reproductive health is essential to meeting MDG 5 and will make significant contributions towards achieving MDG 4", and recommends the adoption of a target for Goal 5 relating to universal access.

Internationally, the Declaration calls for "strong partnerships that include governments, development partners, donors, civil society, the private sector and others" to step up efforts to achieve Goals 4 and 5. It calls on donors to close an estimated $9 billion annual shortfall in funding for maternal and child health programmes.

"This has been a very productive and inspiring meeting, one that has taken full advantage of the depth and diversity of experience among the participants," said Kunio Waki, Deputy Executive Director (Programme), of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, at the partnership meeting’s closing session. "Our shared commitment to health and equity has strengthened our mutual determination to redress the shameful and unjust gaps in coverage for mothers, newborns and children."

Calling health "a vital dimension of social justice", Mrs. Gandhi said, "The Delhi Declaration sets the stage for decisive action." She concluded: "We resolve to work together for the noble cause of saving our sisters’ lives and our children."

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UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of population assistance. Making motherhood safer for all women is at the heart of the Fund’s mandate.

Contact Information:

William A. Ryan
Tel.: +66 2 288 2446
Email: ryanw@unfpa.org

Omar Gharzeddine
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5028
Email: gharzeddine@unfpa.org