Ending Preventable Maternal and Child Deaths in Africa

Africa has been able to cut in half maternal and child deaths in the last 20 years.

The key to ending preventable maternal and childhood deaths is to strength our health systems.

In today's world, one would have imagined that the 21st century woman and child should not be concerned about loosing their lives over preventable illnesses or complications.
Sadly, this is not so.
About 6.3 million under five children die from preventable causes yearly.
About half of this population are infants.

Women in Subsaharan Africa are 47 times more likely to die from preventable causes than a woman in the US. An average of 800 women are said to die daily from pregnancy complications and child birth.

This is huge!

Efforts have been made to combat this global burden of maternal and child deaths, however we need to push for more results.

Recently the G7 summit was held in Germany and world leaders made re commitments to further look into the causes of these deaths and overall end maternal and child death from preventable causes by 2030.

Is this feasible, one would ask?

In my opinion ending preventable maternal and child deaths is a done deal if leaders globally would prioritize the health sector in every developing nation of the world.

The percentage of the budget allocated to health still falls below the stipulated 15% in many African nations.

Babatunde Osotimehin of UNFPA has asked African governments and leaders to increase their commitment to improving maternal and infant health. He said this is important to be able to realize the socio economic development we are aiming for in Africa.

The plight and the circumstances of the African woman should be brought to lime light and dealt with.

He emphasized the need for "smart investments" and "political will" as important factors in achieving quality health services.

He also touched on the need to prioritize female education and the elimination of cultural practices that violate the rights of the female child.


He noted that Africa has made good progress in attaining a level of gender equity, with Rwanda boasting of 60% female representation in parliament.

Female empowerment will go a long way in reducing preventable child and maternal deaths as health seeking behaviour improves with education.

In Nigeria in October of year 2012, The Saving one million lives by 2015 initiative was launched by the then President; Jonathan Good Luck. This was targeted at improving maternal and child health through the reduction of the death from preventable causes which affects about 900000 mothers and children annually.

To help achieve this feat the World Bank recently approved the release of $500 million to Nigeria.

This is not without cause; Nigeria currently is second only to India in maternal and child deaths globally, at 14 and 13% respectively.

This fund will be administered under the auspices of Program for results, to ensure accountability, results and innovation. It is also to cumulatively help to strengthen Nigeria's health system.