The Commissioner for Social Affairs, Africa Union Commission, Madam Bience Gawanas, on Tuesday advocated the respect for the rights and dignity of women to empower them.
She also said there was the need to educate them on reproductive health to help curb the high maternal mortality rate in Africa.
She said social structures like health facilities and health workers must also be provided, especially in the rural areas and at the grassroots to ensure that expectant mothers had easy access to such facilities.
Speaking at a press briefing as part of the on-going International Conference on Population and Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Madam
Gawanas said: "Most of the women who die through child birth die out of abuse of either their human rights because they cannot negotiate for safe sex with their partners leading them to give birth every year at the peril of their lives or lack of information on child birth."
She expressed regret that despite many efforts being put in place to check maternal health, cases rather kept increasing, thus the need to involve all at the grassroots - chiefs, opinion leaders, community champions
and everybody - to send the message across on the need for women to space their birth and attend regular antenatal care while pregnant.
On the goals of the ICPD, Madam Gawanas said African leaders need to accelerate actions to implement about three of four key actions out of the programme of actions, within the shortest time.
According to her, it was only African leaders who could solve their own problems by mobilising human and financial resources from within their countries and the private sector instead of relying so much on international
donors who had their own interest as well.