Cutting Child, Maternal Mortality
UNFPA help assured
Nobuko Horibe, regional director, Bangkok of UNFPA, stressed the need for united work to save life of women in reducing child and maternal mortality as per the target of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
She was speaking at a roundtable discussion at a city hotel yesterday.
She mentioned that revitalising the national family planning programme, particularly focusing on hard to reach population, the poorest segments and increased economic opportunities for women are the key factors in further fertility decline in Bangladesh. Expressing her satisfaction over the achievement of Bangladesh in reducing child and maternal mortality from 322/100,000 to 194/ 100,000 live births, the regional director also said that UNFPA would continue support to the government and the people in sustaining the past successes of the programme.
Maternal mortality could be cut by nearly three-quarters by improving women's access to comprehensive reproductive health services, including family planning and strategies to prevent abortion-related complications, within the broader context of efforts to promote human rights, poverty reduction and gender equality, said Arthur Erken, UNFPA Representative, Bangladesh.
Maternal mortality still needs to decline by 25 percent to achieve the MDG-5 target of 143 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015, which is now 194 per 100,000 live births, said Dr Ubaidur Rob, Country Director, Population Council.
Prof Nurun Nabi of the department of Population Sciences of Dhaka University, Dr Quamrun Nahar, Dr Noor Mohammad and Dr Zafarulla Khan attended the discussion among others.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments