While improving access to maternal and newborn health services is fundamental in reducing the global maternal and neonatal mortality ratios and meeting the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals, strengthening quality of care is an equally important aim. The Maternal Health Innovations Fund, an MHTF project, recently supported several projects in collaboration with The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and Pakistan’s Agha Khan University (AKU) that examined ways to improve quality of care in low- and middle-income countries…read more
The impact of the West Africa Ebola outbreak on obstetric health care in Sierra Leone
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Posted onThe Global Development Framework in Transition: Where Are Mothers and Newborns in the Post-2015 Era?
Posted onBy Koki Agarwal, Director, Maternal and Child Survival Program; Ana Langer, Director, Maternal Health Task Force; and Joy Riggs-Perla, Director, Saving Newborn Lives at Save the Children
While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) underlined the necessity of better policies and programs to improve maternal and child health, HIV and AIDS, malaria, and other health conditions, the approach had significant flaws. Having separate goals for mothers and children may have been a disservice, fostering the persistent segmentation of service delivery.
The era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently started. With their focus on universal health care, equity, and integration, the new policy framework represents a historic opportunity to build on progress, while addressing the limitations of the MDGs. It is critical, however, not to let an emphasis on maternal and newborn health wane in this new broad agenda… read more