Posts tagged under MDGs
Upcoming Event: The Cost of Inequality – Asia’s Poor and Children left behind?
To register for the talk please RSVP at lkyspppl@nus.edu.sg . We are looking forward to welcoming you at our talk on January 18th.
EU development days: how do we do global health policy?
Last week I attended the EU development days in Brussels (6-7/12) – two days of debates, lectures, seminars and workshops on topics pertaining to the field of development worldwide. The over-arching topic of the 2010 EDDs was global health policy. I attended three conferences in particular: Making Global Health Deliver : Right to Health Right Now, Health as a Smart Investment, and Creating a Global Health Policy Worthy of the Name. Those three conferences gathered important and wide ranging speakers such as the Malawian and Ecuadorian Ministers of Health, EU commissioner for development Mr. Piebalgs, or the WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Carissa Etienne.
The discussions were centered first and foremost on how to achieve a global health policy. Each discussion started off by highlighting the shortcomings of our global health system today:
- There remains 20 million premature deaths from avoidable causes per year in developing countries
- Low access to medicine: 4/5th of population accounts for just 10% of medicines used
- International health aid has quadrupled in 10 years but public funding for health remains stagnant
Health MDGs update: slow progress on maternal mortality
Cambodia
- Malaria deaths and infections in Cambodia rose sharply in 2009
- Cambodia Struggles to Reduce Maternal Deaths; especially in remote areas. In Thma Da commune (on the Thai border), 1 trained health worker per 4000 people scattered across difficult to reach, muddy terrain.
- Alarming Maternal Deaths Require a Mix of Solutions
- Cambodia needs more midwives to reduce maternal deaths
- Changes needed to lower maternal deaths; unsafe abortions result in 20 percent to 29 percent of all maternal deaths, traditional birth attendants need more and better training to prevent unnecessary fatalities.
Myanmar
- Ignorance jeopardises Chin children’s health
- Maternal mortality remains high; 316 deaths per 100 000 live births.
Philippines
- Maternal Mortality Rates Not Making Sufficient Progress to Meet MDGs; 230 deaths per 100,000 live births.
- UNICEF warns of MDG gaps in Philippines; regional disparities persist.
Indonesia