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STORY: UN / MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH ADVANCER
SOURCE: UNTV / UNICEF
TRT: 4:51
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – UNICEF - JULY 2010, WONDOGENET, ETHIOPIA
1. Various shots, health clinic
2. Various shots, health extension workers on rounds
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Resources allocation is not immediately made available to maternal health, to children’s health. This has been one of the areas that’s has not been given priority.”
FILE – UNICEF - 28 MAY 2010, ORISSA STATE, INDIA
4. Wide shot, pregnant woman walking into a primary health center
5. Various shots, pregnant woman checked by nurse
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“We all know very well that in many societies, in many communities women are disempowered and therefore, even the question of investment focusing, looking deeply into areas that really affect them has not been given that much importance.”
FILE – UNICEF - 28 MAY 2010, ORISSA STATE, INDIA
7. Various shorts, fathers and extended families
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund:
“There are still opposition to the whole area of reproductive health but I believe the opposition is focused on whether women are of value or not. We have to engage men, we have to engage religious leaders, community leaders, NGOs, like the Summit here, so that together we can see that women are critical to the wellbeing of the family, the community and therefore investing in women is smart economics.”
FILE – UNAMA - DATE UNKNOWN, AFGHANISTAN
9. Various shots, maternity room at Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital in Kabul
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jeffrey Sachs, Millennium Development Goals Advocate, United Nations:
“Where there have been targeted investments in health – in AIDS, TB, Malaria, immunization – we have seen big breakthroughs. Where there has not yet been a focused financing effort, and that’s the case unfortunately for maternal health, we don’t see the same kind of progress. So what’s needed now is for the donor partners is to pull their resources, what the African leaders have said, is to pull them inside the global fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, by opening a new financing window for maternal health and infant survival.”
FILE - UNICEF - AUGUST 2010, MARADI PROVINCE, NIGER
11. Various shots, mothers breastfeeding
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund:
“Now there has been some achievement, its not that this is all dark and gloomy. However, the achievements are not sufficient. And what we are hoping, the health of women, especially maternal health, MDGs, will be the highest priority in national policies.”
FILE - UNICEF – 30 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 2008, TANGA REGION, TANZANIA
13. Various shots, mothers and babies at clinic getting measles treatment
FILE – UNICEF - 28 MAY 2010, ORISSA STATE, INDIA
14. Various shots, woman giving birth to a healthy baby boy
15. Med shot, a nurse carrying the new born into a cradle
UNTV - SEPTEMBER 2010, NEW YORK
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
SOUNDBITE (English) Asha-Rose Migiro, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The good news is that increasingly it is realized that maternal health has got a lot to do with the rest of the goals. Actually the goals that are health-related have a multiply effect if enough investment is done there.”
FILE - UNTV – SEPTEMBER 2000, NEW YORK
17. Various shots, world leaders at the Millennium Summit
With just five years left to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the United Nations (UN) calls for world leaders to intensify their efforts to improve women’s and children’s health.
Out of the eight MDGs, the two goals focusing on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health are identified as having the least progress with around eight million children dying of preventable causes and more than 350,000 women dying from preventable complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro talks about the lack of “resource allocation,” needed to scale up efforts to promote these goals. She adds that “in many communities where women are disempowered” investments in “areas that really affect them has not been given that much importance.”
Like Migiro, Thoraya Obaid, who works to promote reproductive health, gender equality and safe motherhood as the head of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), says that one of the biggest challenges lies on the mindsets of people.
With opposition to reproductive health “focused on whether women are of value or not,” she adds that it is important to engage men, world, religious and community leaders as well as the civil society “so that together we can see that women are critical to the wellbeing of the family, the community and therefore investing in women is smart economics.”
Next week nearly 140 heads of State and Government will gather at the UN headquarters in New York for a summit measuring progress on the MDGs, which were adopted in 2000 and are targeted to be achieved by 2015.
During the summit, world leaders will review progress, identify gaps and commit to a concrete action agenda to achieve the goals. The UN reports that, to date, the global record in achieving the goals has been mixed. There have been many important gains, but much remains to be done.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs, a UN MDG Advocate and a former Special Advisor, talks about the discrepancies in the gains achieved so far. He says that unlike the “targeted investments” in preventing and treating AIDS, TB, malaria as well as general immunization, there has been no focused financing effort made for maternal health.
He suggests that “what is needed now is for the donor partners is to pull their resources” and open “a new financing window for maternal health and infant survival” within the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria which reported in 2007 that more than 1.8 million lives had been saved as a result of its supported programmes worldwide.
The UN reports that often the solutions are very simple. Clean water, exclusive breastfeeding, nutrition and education on how to prevent poor health are just some examples.
If the world reaches the 2015 targets for the goals by reducing the infant mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-quarters reduction in maternal mortality and universal access to reproductive health, the lives of four million children and 250,000 women will be saved.
UNFPA’s Obaid says that it’s not “all dark and gloomy” and that there “has been some achievement.” She adds that “the achievements are not sufficient” and maternal health needs to be “the highest priority in national policies.”
Today 10,000 fewer children are dying each day today in 1990 and in developing countries like Tanzania deaths of children under five have fallen by 15-20 percent because of widespread use of interventions such as immunizations, vitamin A supplements and integrated management of childhood illnesses.
During the upcoming high-level MDG summit, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to launch an accelerated plan to achieve the goals. The UN hopes that the plan, “Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health,” will be rapidly translated into concrete action and measurable results by 2015. .
With the strategy, countries will be able to enhance financing, strengthen policy and improve service delivery.
Migiro believes that “the good news is that increasingly it is realized that maternal health has got a lot to do with the rest of the goals.”
The momentum to get back on track and scale up efforts is now. Investing in the health of women and children has multiple effects. It not only reduces maternal and infant mortality, it also reduces poverty, stimulates economic productivity and growth, and promotes human rights.
The MDGs were formed in 2000 at the landmark Millennium Summit in New York when world leaders pledged to do their utmost to try to attain the goals by 2015. Aside from reducing maternal and child mortality, other targets include slashing poverty, fighting disease, halting environmental degradation and boosting health.
