Inter Press Service - June 15, 2009
Thalif Deen

A new study, released Monday, says the most "elusive" of the U.N.'s eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the ones relating to health: reducing child mortality (Goal 4), improving maternal health (Goal 5) and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (Goal 6).

"If we balk now in our efforts to achieve the Health MDGs, we will put our present and future generations at risk," warns Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "But if we rise to the challenge, we can set the world on course for long-term prosperity and stability."

The study, published by the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals on behalf of the Network of Global Leaders, focuses on the health of mothers and children, and highlights practical ways to "reduce the continuing and unnecessary death toll in developing countries."

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), which is at the forefront of the U.N. campaign for the health MDGs, told IPS: "We welcome this report's timely emphasis on the need to increase investments in women's health despite the current economic crisis."

She said that even before the crisis, the MDG5, to improve maternal health, was lagging the furthest behind.

"So we need to make greater progress," Obaid added.

Focusing largely on the world's poorer nations, the study calls for scaling up health services to the tune of 36-45 billion dollars by 2015, over and above the current spending (and cumulatively about 114-251 billion dollars from 2009 to 2015.)

The "priority countries" range from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin and Burkina Faso to Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to the report, the increased financing could become a reality through mechanisms such as solidarity levies on airline tickets, currency transfers and tobacco tax, along with frontloading investments and private sector donations.

"It is hoped that the G8 meeting in July will further close the funding gap," the report says.

The summit meeting of the world's eight major industrial powers (G8) - the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and Canada - is scheduled to take place Jul. 8-10 in L'Aquila, a city in central Italy.

The study was released Monday at a luncheon ceremony hosted by Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, a country taking a lead role in the global campaign for the health MDGs.

The campaign itself was launched in New York in September 2007 by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

The Network of Global Leaders was formed at the invitation of Stoltenberg to provide political backing at the highest possible level.

The global leaders include President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of UK, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and President Lula da Silva of Brazil, among others.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Store said "important progress" has been made to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and childhood diseases.

"However, efforts to reduce maternal and newborn deaths through the MDGs have so far failed miserably," he added.

To make significant strides towards the MDGs by 2015, "we all need to invest more, work more closely together and secure systems that must deliver on our commitments," he said.

Among the steps proposed are: increased political mobilisation; adequate financing and effective delivery; streamlined and harmonised aid operations; free services for women and children at the point of use and the removal of access barriers; skilled and motivated health workers at the right place at the right time; and accountability for results with robust monitoring and evaluation.

Obaid told IPS that investing in the health and well-being of women and girls is the right strategy to generate economic growth and improve people's lives.

"It is good for public health, it saves lives, and it is smart economics."

She said it is imperative for governments to increase health budgets and development assistance for health, especially sexual and reproductive health, "if we want to promote economic recovery and growth."

Partners agree on an effective package of reproductive health services to save the lives of women, which includes voluntary family planning, skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care.

"Providing voluntary family planning services is a cost-effective intervention that must be prioritised. Family planning alone can reduce maternal mortality by 25 to 40 percent and result in government savings in the long-run."

She said studies show that each dollar invested in contraceptive services will save up to four dollars in cost on maternal and newborn health and up to 31 dollars in social spending (housing, sanitation, education, etc.) and other expenses."

"For each additional 10 million dollars received for family planning, we can avert 114,000 unintended pregnancies, 50,000 unplanned births, 48,000 abortions, 15,000 miscarriages and more than 3,000 infant deaths," Obaid said.

The eight MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.

A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015.

But their implementation has been undermined by the shortage of funds, cuts in development aid, and most recently, by the global economic crisis.

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+ Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals (http://www.who.int/pmnch/activities/delivernow/en/index.html)

+ U.N. Population Fund (http://www.unfpa.org/public/)

+ MOZAMBIQUE: Scant Progress With Paediatric HIV (http://www.aegis.org/news/ips/2009/ip090607.html)

+ HEALTH-KENYA: Two Dollars And Change: Enough To Save a Mother's Life (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47198)

+ SWAZILAND: Donor Support For Health Sector Drying Up (http://www.aegis.org/news/ips/2009/ip090604.html)

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