UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (Xinhua) — With hundreds of thousands of women and girls dying in pregnancy or childbirth every year and 10 to 15 million more suffering long-lasting disabilities, the United Nations on Wednesday announced steps for a multi-pronged campaign to fight the scourge.
Calling for urgent and strategic efforts, the Joint Action Plan urges all stakeholders, developed and developing countries, civil society actors, private businesses, philanthropic institutions and the multilateral system to each offer new initiatives and adopt an accountability framework that will keep maternal and child health high on the national and international development agenda.
\”The fact remains that one preventable maternal death is too many; hundreds of thousands are simply unacceptable — this, in the 21st century,\” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told key partners on the eve of a formal meeting that he has convened for Thursday to further develop a set of concrete actions to advance the Plan.
\”It has been 10 years since the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),\” he said of the ambitious targets set by the UN Summit of 2000 to slash a host of social ills by 2015, including reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters. \”We are making great strides in some areas. In some countries maternal deaths are declining. That is great news.\”
\”But progress on maternal health is still lagging far behind. For too long, maternal and child health has been at the back of the MDG train, but we know it can be the engine of development,\” he said. \”So we say: women and children first. After all, a health system that delivers for mothers will deliver for the whole community. But, first, we must deliver.\”
Those present included President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, Vice President Boediono of Indonesia and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
On a personal note, Ban recalled that he himself was born not in a hospital but at home in a small rural village in Korea, where hospitals and clinics were then faraway luxuries, and older women from the community, often with experience as their medical training.
\”One of my strongest memories is the custom of women at the time as they went into labor,\” he said. \”They would look at their shoes before entering into the room and … just stare at their shoes, their simple rubber shoes. I remember seeing this once and asking my mother, but why? What is she doing? And my mother said, \’she is wondering if she will ever be able to step into those shoes again,\’ because at that time, there was no such medical help for women.\”
\”It was a plea, a quiet prayer: Let me make it through. Let me walk this earth again. Always, there were doubts. Far too often, there were tragedies. Many women died. Even today, in villages, towns and cities around the world, these fears remain all too real. In our world today, too many women lose their lives giving life,\” he said.
