By DOREEN NAWA
More than 800 leaders and public health experts from
around the world opened a landmark two-day meeting in Johannesburg to review
new data and call for accelerated action to improve maternal, newborn and child
health. The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) 2014
Partners’ Forum was opened by Graça Machel, Chair of PMNCH and African
Ambassador for Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed, who is making
her first public appearance since the end of her mourning period after the death
of her husband, Nelson Mandela.
“The world has made remarkable progress to improve health
and expand opportunities over the past 14 years. Despite all efforts, there is
still much more to be done,” said Graça Machel. “Women and children have not
been covered adequately. We must ensure that all women, adolescent girls,
children and newborns, no matter where they live, are able to fulfill their
rights to health and education, and realize their full potential.”
In support of the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman
Every Child movement, the Partners’ Forum builds on two months of high-level
meetings in Toronto, Prague, and Washington, DC, where global leaders and
health experts met to discuss strategies to promote the health of women and
children. At this Forum, leaders discussed steps to assist countries that have
lagged behind in efforts to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child
health, and made specific recommendations for how to maintain the focus on
women and children within the post-2015 development agenda. Notably, participants
also pledged their financial and policy support and a range of new resources to
support the implementation of the new Every Newborn action plan (ENAP), a
roadmap to improve newborn health and prevent stillbirths by 2035.
“We are privileged as a country to host this important
meeting about the urgent need to improve women’s and children’s health. This
global gathering gives us the opportunity to learn from each other’s successes
and challenges, and to identify new approaches,” said Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi,
South African Health Minister. The Government of South Africa is a Forum
co-host, together with PMNCH, Countdown to 2015, A Promise Renewed and the
independent Expert Review Group.
Despite improvements, 289,000 women still die every year
from complications at birth and 6.6 million children do not live to see their
fifth birthday, including nearly 3 million newborns. At least 200 million women
and girls are unable to access family planning services that would allow them
to control when they have children.
The world has been especially slow in improving health
outcomes for newborns. Globally, each year, 2.9 million newborns (first 28 days
of life) die and 2.6 million are stillborn (die in the last three months of
pregnancy or during childbirth). Recent data published in The Lancet Every
Newborn Series indicate that 15,000 babies are born and die every day without
ever receiving a birth or death certificate. The accompanying analysis found
that 3 million maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths in 75 high burden
countries could be prevented each year with proven interventions that can be
implemented for an annual cost of only US$1.15 per person.
Responding to this crisis, partners at the Forum launched
the ENAP, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in May 2014. The action plan is
based on concrete evidence to further reduce preventable newborn deaths and
stillbirths. Signalling their support for the full and prompt implementation of
the plan, Forum attendees announced 40 new commitments. These commitments are
in support of the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child movement and
come from a diverse group of stakeholders, including governments, civil society
organizations and the private sector.
“There is absolutely no reason for so many newborns to
die every year when their lives can be saved with simple, cost-effective
solutions,” said Dr. Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director-General for Family,
Women’s and Community Health at the World Health Organization. “The WHO remains
committed to support countries and work with partners as the plan gets
implemented, and to the accountability agenda, which includes reporting on
progress achieved every year until 2030.”
New data is critical to inform discussions about changing
this reality. Today, partners at the Forum released the Countdown to 2015
Report for 2014, which presents the latest assessment of progress in the 75
countries that account for 95 percent of all maternal and child deaths each
year. The report finds that in several countries, more than half of the mothers
and children in the poorest 20 percent of the population still receive two or
fewer of the eight interventions deemed essential for preventing or treating
common causes of maternal and child death, including vaccinations, skilled
birth attendance, pneumonia and diarrhea treatment, and access to family
planning. The analysis shows that, in these 75 countries, a median of 39
percent of deaths of children under age five occur during the first month of
life, underscoring a need for improved access to quality skilled delivery care
for mother and baby around the time of birth, when most stillbirths and
maternal and newborn deaths occur.
“We have affordable interventions that we know work.
There’s no excuse for not bringing them to the women and children who need
them,” said Dr. Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health at UNICEF and co-Chair of
Countdown to 2015. “The health and well-being of our next generation, and the
right of millions of children to live happy, productive lives, is at stake.”
One other report was also launched at the 2014 PMNCH
Partners’ Forum: Success Factors for Women’s and Children’s Health Report
spotlights 10 “fast track” countries making considerable progress in reducing
maternal and child deaths, showing that rapid progress is possible despite
significant social and economic challenges. The report showed the benefits of
investing in high-impact interventions such as skilled care at birth,
immunization, and family planning.
Delegates at the Forum emphasized the importance of
ensuring that future efforts focus on countries that are making slow progress,
and on poor and marginalized populations, including newborns and adolescents.
Delegates also urged political leaders to work across different
sectors—including education, skills and employment, water supply and
sanitation, nutrition, energy, roads, and women’s empowerment—to ensure an
integrated approach to improving the health of women and children.
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