To improve on maternal health, there is the need for the scaling up and delivery of a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health information, supplies and services, the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has said.
Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of the UNFPA, who made this known in Addis Ababa on Monday said: "This include services for safe
delivery such as skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric care, and for HIV prevention and. cost-effective interventions in development-family Planning,"
Speaking at the opening of a high-level meeting on maternal health-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs Five) in the Ethiopian capital, she noted that maternal mortality was the world's largest health inequity.
The meeting, being organised by the Netherlands and the UNFPA, is intended to push maternal health higher on the political agenda and increase political and financial commitment for improving maternal health.
More than 160 ministers, parliamentarians and representatives of regional inter-governmental organisations and other world leaders are attending the meeting.
Ms Obaid told the delegates that, if actions were accelerated to improve maternal health and end the endless death and suffering of women,
there was a great possibility that maternal mortality would steadily decline.
She expressed regret that funding for population and reproductive health had remained at the same level for some time now, adding that it would cost the world 23 billion dollars per year to stop women from having unintended pregnancies and dying during childbirth.
The world would again lose 15 billion dollars in productivity each year by allowing mothers and new borns to die.
"Today I call on governments, organisations and financial institutions, in the North and South to recommit and invest in sexual and reproductive health, including family planning as an urgent priority," she stressed.
Mr Bert Koenders, Minister of Development Co-operation, of the Netherlands, described MDG five as the mother of all MDGs since investment
in it would promote the attainment of all other goals.
"In 2010 we want to make up ground on MDG5 and ensure that there is greater access to sexual and reproductive health information services and
commodities people require. This is a universal right," he added.
Mr Koenders recounted that for the past 20 years little progress had been made on achieving the first target of MDG5.
He said each year 536,000 women in the developing countries die from pregnancy related complications.
"So it is high time real progress was made on MDG5, both on reducing maternal mortality and on the often-overlooked second target, the right of
everyone to have access to sexual and reproductive health information, education, services and commodities," he noted.
He expressed the Dutch government's determination to commit funds towards attaining universal access to reproductive health.
Mr Koenders said his country had invested five million Euros in female condom and increased contribution to the Global Programme on Reproductive Health Commodity Security from five million Euros to 30 million Euros over
four years in 2008.
Present at the conference was Professor Fred Sai, International Adviser on Women's Health, who moderated the second session of a closed- door
meeting on Challenges in Addressing Policy Change to Achieve Implementation of MDG5 at the Country Level.