PRES: With half a million mothers dying in pregnancy or as they give birth, world leaders this month announced a $5 billion health care package to end this needless tragedy. The initiative was led by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who called these needless deaths a neglected tragedy. UN Radio's Diane Bailey has more.
DIANE: In announcing the financing, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it would benefit 10 million people, and most especially end the tragedy of maternal mortality. He cited the case of a woman by the name of Adama, from an unnamed West African country.
BROWN: Adama who went into premature labour on Christmas Eve last year, who started bleeding heavily, was rushed to hospital by her husband; Adama, who was told at the hospital that she would only be treated if she could pay and with no money available to pay, she had no choice but to return home where she slowly bled to death. Her tragedy, like so many others, is that with simple medical care, she could so easily have been saved.
PRES: Millions of mothers die needlessly because they can't pay for health care. Gordon Brown acknowledged that "bad development advice and bad development policy" in the 1980s had led many poor countries to begin charging fees for health care.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's Director-General, said the agency supported this new initiative, and would help countries in removing barriers to access to health care.
CHAN: Of all the barriers let me highlight one very important one, and that is the removal of user fees. User fees punish the poor, user fees stop mothers and children from accession to health care that is very much needed.
PRES: One of the countries that stands to benefit from the new initiative is Nepal, whose prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal said that in January of this year, his country had begun offering free maternal health services.
NEPAL: In the last decade, we have reduced maternal deaths and deaths of children under 5 by 50%. Despite these significant achievements, sadly one mother dies during childbirth every 4 hours, and 110 newborns die every day.
PRES: Nepal's Prime Minister said his country would begin offering cash in hand incentives to encourage more women to seek health care when they become pregnant.
PRES: In addition to Nepal, Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone will receive funding to roll back user fees for health care. Many NGOs say more than the financial commitment, the debate about user fees preventing the poor from receiving health care may now have been won. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said 36 to 45 billion dollars a year is needed to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals, including reducing maternal deaths, by 2015. For UN Radio, this is Diane Bailey. |
