Govt urged to prioritise maternal health
National coordinator for Presidential Initiative on Safe Motherhood, Dorothy Ngoma, has asked the newly elected government to prioritise maternal health, saying what has already been achieved should not be lost.
Ngoma said this in an interview when asked to comment on President Peter Mutharika’s State of the Nation Address presented in Parliament last week.
She observed the President did not give a hint on his plans for maternal health, raising fears the issue may no longer be a priority on government’s agenda as was the case in the past.
“I know the Nation Address was for all government activities, but the President could have done justice to a Malawian mother by giving hints on how he wants to promote health of women. We have been on track and we have managed to reduce maternal deaths. I hope that, at the same pace, we can achieve more,” Ngoma said.
She also asked the President to recognise successes in maternal health achieved by the previous regime and work on further reducing maternal death rate.
“The main challenge with Malawi’s development is that it goes with political will. If the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government has no political will on maternal health, the country should forget about achieving MDGs goals,” she said.
Mutharika’s government is faced with the task to reduce the country’s maternal deaths to 155 per 100 000 live births by 2015. Currently, the country grapples with 675 deaths per 100 000 live births.
