UNITED NATIONS, New York — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today welcomed the renewed endorsement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the Group of Eight (G-8), and particularly their commitment to maternal and reproductive health as means to achieving these goals.

“We strongly welcome this new show of concern by leaders of the world’s richest nations for the lives of poor women around the world,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. “I have no doubt that this provides millions of women with a new source of optimism, and with a very clear signal that the world has not forgotten them.”

In a statement issued today on Development in Africa, G-8 leaders said: “We note that in some developing countries, achieving the MDGs on child mortality and maternal health is seriously off-track, and therefore, in country-led plans, the continuum of prevention and care, including nutrition should include a greater focus on maternal, newborn and child health.

“Reproductive health should be made widely accessible,” the statement continued. “The G-8 will take concrete steps to work toward improving the link between HIV/AIDS activities and sexual and reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes, to improve access to health care, including preventing mother-to-child transmission, and to achieve the MDGs by adopting a multisectoral approach and by fostering community involvement and participation.”

At the G8 meeting, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also underlined the need for a global push to address maternal health by noting that “maternal health stands as the slowest-moving target of all the MDGs. Ten billion dollars would ensure coverage of basic services for maternal, newborn and children's health. More investment for training community health workers would be a strong step towards strengthening health systems.”

UNFPA hopes that the new G-8 commitment will be translated into more investments in basic health services and human resources to reduce the preventable deaths of millions of children and women each year.

“It would cost the world less than two-and-a-half-day’s worth of military spending to save the lives of 6 million mothers, newborns and children every year,” said Ms. Obaid. “We urge G-8 leaders to translate their commitment into stepped up funding, and to lead by example through their commitment to save and protect lives.”

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UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

Contact information:

Omar Gharzeddine
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5028
Email: gharzeddine@unfpa.org

Katja Iversen
Tel.: +1 212 297 5016
Email: iversen@unfpa.org