Secretary-General raises concern over poor maternal health in Commonwealth

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has raised his concern over the slow progress in reducing maternal mortality rates across the Commonwealth.

Speaking at the ‘Women as Agents of Change in Health Seminar’, at Marlborough House in London on 17 October 2011, Mr Sharma said the protection of women’s health is vital to gender equality as it allows women to lead and contribute to development.

The Secretary-General warned that based on the latest UN data, the target for reducing maternal mortality, under Millennium Development Goal 5 is unlikely to be achieved.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2010 two-thirds of all maternal deaths occurred in 13 countries, seven of which are Commonwealth members: Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Lord Nigel Crisp of the House of Lords in delivering the keynote address to the seminar noted that although women lived longer, they faced greater health risks than men. “Women live six to eight years longer than men, although with a weaker health status, due to violence, limited access to health services, the burden of disease and the burden of treatment.” He suggested the way forward is to educate both sexes and proffered the ‘60-month gestation period’ to care for mother and child from birth to the first five years of a child’s life.

In responding to the keynote address, the High Commissioner of Grenada in London, Ruth Elizabeth Rouse, said member countries are striving to improve women’s health but are faced by competing priorities, low budgets and the migration of skilled health workers.

The shortage of health workers was highlighted as a major obstacle for women’s health as developing countries battle the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (such as cancer and diabetes), HIV and AIDS and the economic downturn.

Ms Rouse added : “Grenada is among the three countries with the lowest maternal mortality ratio in the world, followed by Japan and Mauritius. There are 0 deaths to every 100,000 live births in the country.”

She attributed this positive trend to her government’s multi-sector approach involving all departments, and the training of midwives beyond nursing skills to include record-keeping, communication skills, monitoring and evaluation systems, and networking.

The Commonwealth is currently assisting countries of the Eastern, Central and Southern African Health Community in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, to build capacity of midwives in order to address maternal mortality.

The Director of the Social Transformation Programmes Division, Dr Sylvia Anie, in closing the seminar reiterated that social, economic and political progress and justice can be accelerated if women and girls have access to healthcare and are treated fairly with the same opportunities and protection as men and boys.