KUALA LUMPUR – Obstetric complications continue to be a leading cause of death and disability for women of reproductive age in developing countries. Over half a million women die during pregnancy and childbirth each year, the majority in Africa and Asia. Although a key Millennium Development Goal, agreed upon by 189 governments, is to reduce maternal deaths by three quarters by 2015, global progress to save women’s lives remains slow.

“Every minute one woman pays with her life because she did not receive the health care she needed to survive,” said Kunio Waki, a Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, at the opening of the Third Global Conference on Averting Maternal Death and Disability here today. “The tragedy is that almost all of these deaths could be prevented.”

While most pregnancy-related complications cannot be predicted, they can be treated if women have access to quality emergency obstetric care at the time of delivery. The three-day conference brings together over 300 participants from 50 countries to discuss efforts to reduce maternal mortality and improve access to emergency obstetric care.

“We must work to ensure that the health of women is made a top priority in development plans, policies, programmes and in budgets,” stressed Mr. Waki. Organized by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, based in New York, the conference is part of the university’s Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) programme, which began in 1999. Partners include UNFPA, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), CARE and Save the Children.

Mr. Waki reported on advancements made by UNFPA over the past four years to improve the availability, quality and use of emergency obstetric care in 16 countries through the AMDD programme. In India, Morocco, Mozambique and Nicaragua, basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care facilities have been rehabilitated, equipped and staffed to provide quality service round the clock. In eight West African countries, UNFPA completed needs assessments to determine the national capacity to provide emergency obstetric care and additional assessments are underway in four Latin American and Caribbean nations.

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UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of assistance for reproductive health and population programmes. It supports safe motherhood interventions in 89 countries and is committed to saving women’s lives through comprehensive reproductive health services that include voluntary family planning, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care and the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

Contact Information:

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