WUNRN
By Kristin Palitza
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ABIDJAN ,
Mar 21, 2012 (IPS) - Political instability, civil strife and humanitarian
crises in Africa have over the past decades reversed countless maternal health
development gains on the continent, health experts warn.
"African
countries with good maternal health statistics are generally those that have
long-term political stability. This shows that stability is a fundamental basis
for development. If it doesn’t exist, other priorities overtake," Lucien
Kouakou, regional director of the International Planned Parenthood
Foundation (IPPF) in
Natural
resource-rich but conflict-ridden
"Regions
like West and
As a result,
more than 550 women die in childbirth every day in sub-Saharan
If a mother
dies, the whole community feels the negative impact of the gap she leaves.
"High maternal mortality has grave consequences not only for families but
also for communities," said Dr Edith Boni- Ouattara, deputy country
representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in
Since
mothers are usually the main caregivers, their health status, and especially
their death, stands in direct correlation with the well-being of their
immediate and extended family. "A mother’s death has a negative impact on
all aspects of a child’s life, including nutrition, health and education,"
the UNFPA representative noted.
Countries
even experience national economic setbacks when mothers die, Boni-Ouattara
further explained: "Worldwide, we lose 15 billion dollars in productivity
per year due to maternal deaths."
But despite
these indicators, maternal health is far from being made a national priority in
African nations. As soon as governments are faced with political threats or
humanitarian emergencies, investments in maternal and infant health as well as
family planning are the first to be cut, according to Kouakou.
More than a
third of women in sub-Saharan
Sadly, this
was largely the case because available budgets were disproportionately targeted
towards defence, noted Kouakou: "Most public hospitals struggle with
health service provision and continuously run out of medicines, but if you
visit a military camp in that same country, you’ll see the latest
weapons."
Second on
the priority list of governments is usually the fight against poverty and
hunger, which is also the first of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) that nations have committed themselves to reach by 2015.
In
sub-Saharan
As long as
African nations remain poor, investments in maternal, sexual and reproductive
health will remain minimal, experts say. Many countries will therefore struggle
to reach the three health-related goals – MDG 4 (the reduction of under-five
child mortality by two-thirds), MDG 5 (reducing maternal mortality by
three-quarters and achieving universal access to reproductive health) and MDG 6
(combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) – within the next three years.
"Most
countries focus on the eradication of poverty and hunger, while maternal health
gets neglected. It’s a matter of priorities," said United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Ivory Coast MDG specialist, El Allassane Baguia.
Few
governments are conscious enough of the tight link between maternal health and
poverty, he said. It takes strong leadership at the country level to shift
those priorities and spend more on maternal and child health, and more
effective implementation of existing policies and international agreements, he
added.
The right to
family planning and thereby to sexual and reproductive rights has, for example,
been included in the U.N. human rights framework since 1974. But such services
have until today not been included in the public health care provision in many
African countries.
"Yet,
family planning services could reduce maternal and infant mortality by a fifth.
Access to qualified medical care could reduce deaths during the birthing
process by 75 percent," Boni-Ouattara noted.
In the
southern and eastern regions of the continent, the situation looks slightly
different. Here, most nations have enjoyed relative political stability and
been affected by fewer humanitarian disasters compared to their neighbours in
West and
Consequently,
politically stable countries with relatively low HIV-infection rates, like
But in
countries like