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Mothers, children and the Millennium Development Goals

Table of Contents Introduction Mothers and children matter - so does their health The early years of maternal and child health Where we are now: a moral and political imperative Mothers, children and the Millennium Development Goals Uneven gains in child health The newborn deaths that went unnoticed Few signs of improvement in maternal health A patchwork of progress, stagnation and reversal The numbers remain high

In his report to the Millennium Summit, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, called on “the international community at the highest level - the Heads of State and Government convened at the Millennium Summit - to adopt the target of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, and so lifting more than 1 billion people out of it, by 2015” ( ⁴⁹ ). He further urged that no effort be spared to reach this target by that date in every region, and in every country. The Millennium Declaration ( ⁵⁰ ), coming after a decade of “unprecedented stagnation and deterioration” ( ⁵¹ ), set out eight specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), each with its numerical targets and indicators for monitoring progress. The MDGs galvanized countries and the international community in a global partnership that, for the first time, articulated a commitment by both rich and poor countries to tackle a whole range of dimensions of poverty and inequality in a concerted and integrated way.

The health agenda is very much in evidence in the MDGs: it is explicit in three of the eight goals, eight of the 18 targets, and 18 of the 48 indicators. This emphasis on health reflects a global consensus that ill-health is an important dimension of poverty in its own right. Ill-health contributes to poverty. Improving health is a condition for poverty alleviation and for development. Sustainable improvement of health depends on successful poverty alleviation and reduction of inequalities.

It is no accident that the formulation of the MDG targets and indicators reveals the special priority given to the health and well-being of women, mothers and children. Mother and child health is clearly on the international agenda even in the absence of universal access to reproductive health services as a specific Millennium Development Goal. Globally, we are making progress towards the MDGs in maternal and child health. Success is overshadowed, however, by the persistence of an unacceptably high mortality and the increasing inequity in maternal and child health and access to health care worldwide.

Footnotes

⁴⁹ Millennium Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. New York, NY, United Nations 2000 (http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/, accessed 22 November 2004).

⁵⁰ United Nations Millennium Declaration. New York, NY, United Nations, 2000 (United Nations General Assembly resolution 55/2; http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf, accessed 22 November 2004).

⁵¹ Human development report 2004 - Cultural liberty in today’s diverse world. New York, NY, United Nations Development Programme, 2004.

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