Regional ministers, others tasked to reduce maternal deaths
President John Dramani Mahama has tasked regional ministers and district chief executives to ensure that maternal mortality is reduced to the barest minimum in their respective areas.
He said the current rate of 350 maternal deaths per every 100,000 live births in the country was an issue which needed to be tackled by all, especially at the regional and district levels.
The President, whose speech was read on his behalf by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Julius Debrah, assigned the task at the 2014 Accountability Forum on Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA) held in Accra, yesterday.
The campaign, launched in 2011, is aimed at committing regional, municipal/metropolitan and district assemblies to reduce maternal deaths at the various levels.
CARMMA
The CARMMA is an African Union (AU) Commission and the United Nations Fund for Population Activity (UNFPA) initiative to intensify the implementation of the Maputo Plan of Action for the reduction of maternal mortality in Africa.
The campaign was initiated by the AU to reduce maternal mortality in most African countries by 75 per cent from 1990 to 2015, as recommended in the Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5).
Call to action
President Mahama called on the regional ministers and the MMDCEs to embrace the challenge and take full responsibility to help reduce the maternal mortality rate in the country.
Regional ministers took turns to give account of how they had been able to improve on maternal mortality rates in their various regions.
The Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini, in his presentation said some of the districts in the region had not recorded any maternal mortality since the beginning of the year.
He said the region had fulfilled its pledge of reducing maternal mortality, although there were some challenges in some areas due to lack of funds in some assemblies.
He underscored the need for action to be expedited on the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
The Deputy Central Regional Minister, Ms Queenstar Pokua Sawyer, said the region had initiated many development projects, such as the building of Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds at the district level, which had helped in reducing maternal mortality rates.
Representatives from the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Upper West and the Upper East regions all gave accounts of what had been done so far in their various regions and districts.
The UNFPA Representative, Dr Babatunde Ahonsi, said the fund had commissioned an independent assessment of the extent of implementation of pledges made by the regions and districts during the launch of the CARMMA in 2011.
He said the report would reveal the real picture of what each district had achieved.
The Head of Local Government Service at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Dr Callistus Mahama, said the aim of the campaign was to ensure that Ghana achieved zero maternal deaths in future.
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