Maternal Mortality: Will the G8 Leaders Do What They Promised?

A couple of days ago, my friends at the White Ribbon Alliance sent me a note about the forthcoming G8 Summit. In Monday's papers, the following image was placed in The Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Evening Standard, Die Welt, Toronto Globe and Mail, La Stampa, Le Monde and Novaya  Gazeta.

Scroll down to see the image

It is a photo of each of the G8 leaders with their mothers. The advertisement was created on behalf of the White Ribbon Alliance which raises awareness about the nearly 600,000 women who die needlessly each year in pregnancy and childbirth, worldwide.

This is a cause that I started writing about almost two years ago and one that I feel very strongly about. You will note some of the eye opening and discouraging statistics in the two blogs that I wrote about this very issue -- maternal mortality -- on my two last visits to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2008/01/27/women-in-davos-tackle-maternal-mortality/

http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2009/02/03/taking-the-time-to-absorb-the-moment/

A colleague at the White Ribbon Alliance sent the following release on Monday:

In Japan in 2008 G8 leaders did pledge to fill the gap in funding for 4 million health workers.  However mechanisms and funding to support this promise have not yet been developed, which has meant that since the last G8 536,000 mothers who could have lived, have died (according to WHO/UNFPA/UNICEF/World Bank). And yet, some countries have made progress towards achieving the goal, despite the current worldwide economic downturn.   Prime Minister Brown has committed to fulfil his promise of spending £7billion to tackle the issue of maternal mortality, and President Obama has proposed a plan to invest $8.6 billion in development work to include reducing maternal mortality and children under 5.

Millennium Development Goal 5 is the goal to reduce maternal mortality by 75% by 2015. Yet it is the most neglected of all the MDGs (Millenium Development Goal's), with no reduction in deaths for 20 years. There are eight MDGs.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

-  Africa accounts for nearly 50% of the world’s maternal deaths, and there has been a minimal decline in maternal mortality in the region since 1990.

-  Between 2004 and 2007, G7 commitments for infectious diseases increased by $2.5 billion whereas commitments for health systems fell by $1.7 million.

-  G7 financing for basic health - which includes the interventions most likely to target poor health in children - as a share of total G7 assistance for health in Africa has remained nearly flat since 2004.

Tomorrow as the G8 wraps up it's meetings on Africa with top African leaders we hope the members of the G8 will step up to their initial commitments. Everyone understands that an economic crisis of this magnitude means funds spent on issues as great as this take a back seat to domestic priorities. Only this issue could be resolved with so little. One in seven women die while giving birth in developing countries. Proper medicine and health care could turn those statistics around and save the women who the children of this world rely on for food, well-being, nurturing, education and existence. Why not doing something now?

For more information, go to www.whiteribbonalliance.org.