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PAHO voices commitment to aid achievement of safe motherhood
With a commitment from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and other international organisations, Guyana, with strategic measures in place, is well on its way to achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Four and Five.
PAHO/WHO Family and Community Advisor Dr. Rosalinda Hernandez
The two together speak to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality, thereby lending to the amplified call for safe motherhood.
Speaking at a recent safe motherhood forum, (PAHO/WHO) Family and Community Advisor, Dr Rosalinda Hernandez, disclosed that PAHO is committed to continuing its contribution to the attainment of the target MDGs.
She said that in the countries of the Americas, in particular Guyana, the organisation’s vision on MDGs was approved by Member countries during the 45th Session of the Directing Council in September 2004. This development, according to her, led to an official resolution calling for countries and PAHO to use the MDGs as guide for national and international efforts towards better health for the people of the Region.
Today, member countries, aided by the theme, “A promise renewed for safe motherhood” are working towards achieving the specifications of the MDGs which are slated to be realised by 2015.
In achieving the goals, Dr Hernandez noted that “everyone must work together,” a notion that was emphasised at a recent stakeholders’ meeting at the Grand Costal Inn, East Coast Demerara.
But despite the efforts to combat infant and maternal mortality, the PAHO Advisor observed that children and mothers are still dying across the world from preventable causes. “There is no excuse since nowadays technology and knowledge are available to fulfil the promise to give all children and mothers, both rich and poor, a fair opportunity to survive and have a quality life,” she insisted.
She said that in order to win this health battle evidence-base, focused interventions are required. According to her the Report from the Latin America and the Caribbean Region shows that neonatal mortality accounts for over 70 per cent of infant mortality. She also disclosed that the Report reflects that nearly 40 per cent of the mortality rates are children under five years old.
A similar distressing situation exists as it relates to maternal deaths, Dr Hernandez noted too. She said that the MDGs Four and Five, as important goals, in order to be achieved must require mandatory coordinated efforts to improve health conditions in the country.
“This requires the creation of alliances with all sectors such as education, the environment, social development, trade and economics that embrace all areas of development,” added Dr Hernandez.
She added that there is need to establish necessary concerns to provoke the ideal synergies to impact those social determinants of health through the collaboration of Government, Non-Governmental Organisations and private sector and the support of individual citizens.
Hernandez, who noted that maternal and child health mortality MDGs are priority topics of the health agenda across the world, said that every Government, organisation, or donor should seek to closely follow the Progress Report of the MDGs since there are less than 1,000 days from the committed 2015 deadline.
World leaders, according to her, are (and should be) committed to reducing child mortality even as she noted that in 2002 the United Nations General Assembly passed a landmark resolution to build a world fit for children.
This sustained commitment has already led to a decrease in child mortality that is unprecedented in human history,” Dr. Hernandez added. She disclosed that in the past two decades the number of under-five deaths has fallen dramatically from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010, a development which speaks to commitment.
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