First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has bemoaned the continuous death of women and children during childbirth worldwide, especially Ghana.
The First Lady, who was speaking on the occasion of a Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), described the situation as not only worrying but unacceptable.
[contextly_sidebar id=”e6DywiGWAijlcVXH3YuPPyfarLyaqVM3″]“Ghana could not achieve its millennium development goal target of 185 per 100,000 live births; we achieved 319 per 100,000 live births at the end of 2015. Given that the new sustainable development goal target is to achieve 70 per 100,000 live births by the end of 2030, we need to work with urgency.”
“This is a crisis situation, and it must be approached as a national emergency if we are to achieve our SDG target. Business, as usual, will simply not work. We need to take bold steps to ensure that our health and indeed social policies address these challenges adequately.”
CARMMA, which is being championed by the African Union Commission, will be an annual assessment that aims at redefining and refocusing countries’ energy towards ensuring that the appropriate interventions are implemented to ensure the total survival of mothers and their children during childbirth.
Expressing her gratitude to CARMMA for taking the initiative to ensure that no one is left behind in the fight to attain the SDGs, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo appealed to stakeholders and the general public to help in the campaign.
“I commend the African Union for taking this initiative. We need a holistic approach to engaging traditional and religious leaders as well as regional, municipal, metropolitan and district level leaders to commit to prioritizing the reduction of maternal death. We need to encourage our parliamentarians to make the reduction of maternal death a priority with the resources available to them. We need to work with all stakeholders to provide funding for health system strengthening. This I know is not difficult for us as a nation.”
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By: Felicia Osei /citifmonline.com/Ghana