African heads of state attending the African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda must act to end the majority of the continent’s annual 4.5 million child deaths and 265,000 maternal deaths.
Friday 23 July 2010
“This is a critical moment for African leaders to show they will put in place the dedicated resources and health policies that will save the lives of millions of their own people,” said Chikezie Anyanwu, Save the Children’s Africa Advocacy Advisor. “The proven solutions to ending the vast majority of child and maternal deaths are well-known and extremely cost-effective.”
African heads of state will meet July 25 to 27 at the 15th African Union Summit themed ‘Maternal, Infant, and Child Health and Development in Africa.’
In the months leading up to the summit, we joined a broad coalition of civil society groups from across Africa and around the world to call on African leaders to deliver four key commitments that will save the lives of mothers and children:
- Put a plan in place. Every African country must develop and implement an accelerated national plan for reducing maternal, newborn and child deaths.
- Make sure the resources are there. Every African country should meet and exceed its 2001 promise in Abuja, Nigeria to spend at least 15 percent of the national budget on health care. Additionally, a meaningful portion of this budget must specifically dedicated to maternal, newborn, and child health.
- Address health worker shortages. Countries must recruit, train and retain more doctors, nurses, and midwives to help reduce the overall gap of 800,000 health workers in Africa by 2015.
- Countries must make sure health care, including emergency obstetric care, is accessible for the poorest people and is free at the point of use for pregnant women and children under the age of five.
A recent study published in the Public Library of Science medical journal estimates that 85% of maternal, newborn, and under-age-five deaths in Africa could be prevented if all mothers and their children received a full package of essential health care that includes the ability to plan and space pregnancies, skilled birth attendance, access to emergency obstetric care, early and effective postnatal care, immunisations and treatment for pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria.
4 million lives could be saved
That means the lives of about 4 million African women, newborns, and children could be saved each year if already well-known interventions reached 90% of the continent.
“The momentum is within reach to dramatically reduce child and maternal deaths and the suffering caused by inadequate healthcare that African leaders see first hand,” Anyanwu continued. “But last month the G8 made it very clear that rich countries alone cannot end the scandal of 12,000 African children dying every day. Africa has a historic chance to show that it can make a legitimate contribution to ending this injustice by agreeing to clear and committed action.”
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