22 September 2010

A groundbreaking international partnership to cut mother and child deaths in the developing world was announced on 22 September, 2010.

The UK was joined by the US and Australian governments and the Gates Foundation in an alliance to work with governments in developing countries to ensure their plans to save mothers and children’s lives are delivered.  

The alliance, which was officially announced at the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Summit in New York on 22 September,  will focus on the most off track Millennium Development Goals (four and five) – both of which cover maternal health – with an emphasis on family planning. The alliance will seek to support a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to achieve their ambitions.

It will offer wide-ranging support for countries’ health plans – potentially ranging from supplying medicines and training midwives to building roads and improving access to new technologies – to plug gaps in the implementation of countries’ health plans.

Maternal health is a major issue in developing countries. In Nigeria, for example, the lifetime risk of a women dying from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 23 compared to 1 in 4,700 in the UK.

New UN estimates are that in 2008, 50,000 women in Nigeria died from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth.

The US, UK, Australia and Gates Foundation Alliance will:

• Work quickly to identify priority countries to work with;
• Help countries to scale up successful work to increase access to reproductive and maternal services including family planning;
• Support the global target to provide an additional 100 million people in the developing world with access to family planning;
• Increase the number of births in developing countries attended by skilled midwives; and,
• Improve access for mothers and newborns to high quality post-natal care.

For more information read the DFID press release.