• Monday, May 30, 2011
• Inter Press Service

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and UNFPA Executive Director Dr Babatunde Osotimehin visited Nigeria last week to promote ‘Every Woman, Every Child’: a global health effort that Ban launched last September during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit in New York.

The mission included visits to a hospital and a health-care centre, where major improvements are being made to reduce the country’s maternal and child mortality rates. Before his appointment to head the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Osotimehin had served as the Minister of Health in Nigeria.

'Health systems that work for women and children are health systems that work for all,' the Secretary-General said when visiting the Maitama Hospital in Abuja. Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality burdens in sub-Saharan Africa. Ban commended the Nigerian government for investing in the health of its people and stated that the United Nations would support these efforts.

'You are strengthening health management information systems, and increasing the number of service providers, including community health workers and midwives. These efforts are bearing fruit. Let us build on them to build health and wealth throughout Nigeria, for all Nigerians,' he added.

While in Nigeria, Ban also met with the country’s top Government officials, including President Goodluck Jonathan. During the September 2010 summit in New York, participants committed $40 billion in resources to a global effort to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.

The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health identifies the finance and policy changes needed, along with vital interventions, to help improve health and save lives. It is expected to prevent, between 2011 and 2015, the deaths of more than 15 million children under five, as well as 33 million unwanted pregnancies and the deaths of 740,000 women from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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