Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival

 

 

Parliamentarians commit to intensify action and monitor progress

19 April 2008, Cape Town – A three day conference on tracking global progress to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths has concluded today with a call for scaled up investment in basic health services and human resources to reduce the preventable deaths of over 10 million children and women each year.

The call was made by the Ministers, Parliamentarians and participants in the three day Countdown to 2015 gathering convened to assess progress in providing essential health services for women and children in the 68 developing countries which account for 97% of maternal and child deaths worldwide. According to the 2008 report Tracking Progress in Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival released here, few of the 68 countries are making adequate progress to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 on reducing maternal and child mortality.

Parliamentarians who participated in joint sessions with the Countdown conference added their voices of support. The delegates attending the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union have committed to scaled up action to reach the MDGs 4 and 5, and agreed to review progress at their next Assembly to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April 2009.

Participants in the Countdown conference agreed to hold their next gathering in 2010, vowing to accelerate country action, monitoring of donor investments in maternal, newborn and child health and data gathering.

In the statement issued today, the Ministers, Parliamentarians and conference participants committed themselves to an intensive effort to:

• Sustain and expand successful efforts to achieve high and equitable coverage of effective and high-impact interventions that save lives and improve the health of mothers and children, and thereby contribute to the fight against poverty;
• Integrate efforts to address undernutrition with broader maternal and child health strategies;
• Support initiatives to stop early marriage, early childbirth and other harmful practices, to keep adolescent girls in schools and to promote good health-seeking behaviour among them;
  
• Strengthen primary health care, linked to the achievement of measurable results;
• Invest in strengthening health systems, including efforts to improve the quality,accessibility, affordability and coverage of essential health services, with a particular focus on priority periods within the continuum of care and strengthening links with interventions addressing HIV/AIDS;
• Invest in infrastructure development and human resources in relation to ethical recruitment and training of health workers, particularly skilled attendants, at all levels, assuring a committed and motivated health workforce;
• Allocate more resources to research, monitoring and evaluation for maternal, reproductive, newborn and child health, and strengthening use of data to guide implementation;
• Address inequities in coverage of care among different geographic, socioeconomic, age and gender groups;
• Hold governments, financing institutions and international organizations accountable for making adequate resources available to achieve MDGs 4 and 5, and other health-related MDGs;
• Ensure predictable, long-term financing for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health which reflects countries' priorities and plans.
  

The final Countdown to 2015 conference Statement of Commitment is attached.

Note for editors: Countdown to 2015 for Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival is a collaboration among individuals and institutions to track coverage for health interventions needed to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5. For more information visit: www.countdown2015mnch.org

Countdown to 2015 partners are:

Aga Khan University, Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), The Basic Support for Institutionalizing Child Survival (BASICS) Project, USAID, Bellagio Child Survival Group, Department for International Development, UK (DfID), Family Care International, International Paediatric Association, Johns Hopkins University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Save the Children, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Lancet, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, The World Bank, University College London Centre for International Health and Development, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Universidade Federal de Pelotas, University of Aberdeen, USAID and the World Health Organization.

For more information:

 

In Cape Town/Geneva	In London
Tunga Namiljilsuren Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Hosted by WHO Mobile: +41 79 477 2678 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it	Cathy Bartley Bartley Robbs Consultants Mobile: +44 208 694 9138 Email: cathy.bartley-robbs.co.uk

 

 

   Countdown to 2015 - Press Release - 19 April 2008   [134 KB]

 

 

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