Functional health delivery system is the right answer, not legislation

Posted  Saturday, August 4  2012 at  01:00

I would like to respond to the story titled, ‘Kabale considers a by-law to force pregnant women into hospital’ in the Daily Monitor of July 27. The story said the by-law will compel pregnant mothers to deliver in a health facility and penalise those who deliver under the care of a traditional birth attendants.

Experience from around the world suggests that about 15 per cent of all pregnant women will develop obstetric complications and that not all these complications can be predicted. Delivery under the care of a skilled health care provider - midwife, doctor, or nurse with midwifery skills - is the safest method for saving the lives of mothers and their newborn.

Countries with the highest skilled attended deliveries such as Sweden and Malaysia are also the nations with the lowest maternal and newborn deaths. Every year, 350,000 women worldwide die during pregnancy, or during labour, almost 1,000 a day. Of these deaths, 99 per cent occur in developing countries such as Uganda.

Every year, up to 2 million newborns die within the first 24 hours of life. Uganda looses 45,000 newborns annually; many more suffer birth trauma that impairs their development and future productivity.

In recognition of the critical role of skilled care in reducing maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity; Uganda has committed itself to increasing skilled attended deliveries from 53 per cent to 90 per cent by 2015.

I would like to commend the local leadership in Kabale District for recognising the importance of skilled healthcare and their intentions to encourage mothers to deliver in a health facility instead of under a traditional birth attendant. However, enforcing skilled attended delivery through a by-law is not the answer.

A survey conducted by White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in six districts in Uganda (Assessment of Maternal Health Services in Six Districts in Uganda, 2010) showed that health facilities in Kabale had only 2 per cent of the required midwives and only one doctor. None of the health centre IVs could provide blood transfusion services or caesarian sections. Many facilities lacked essential supplies, transport for referral of obstetric emergencies at HC4 and 3.

I would like to request the decision makers in Kabale District to examine the current healthcare delivery system and make it attractive to the clients by providing an attractive healthcare delivery package to women. That means adequate supplies, equipment, provision of emergency obstetric at HC 3 and 4, adequate midwives. Conduct community awareness raising about the benefits of skilled attended births in addition to addressing social-cultural factors that limit a woman’s ability to access her maternity care services.

The government should play its role of ensuring adequate financial and human resources towards meeting its national and international commitments on Millennium Development Goal 5 and support local governments to deliver quality services to its citizens. Uganda committed itself to giving the health sector 15 per cent of its annual budget.

Robina Biteyi,

National Coordinator

WRA Uganda biteyi.robina@gmail.com 

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Letters/Functional+health+delivery+system+is+the+right+answer/-/806314/1470142/-/4crjqsz/-/index.html

Kabale considers law to force pregnant women into hospitals

A nurse attends to a mother and her baby at Kabale Hospital yesterday. Some women shun health centres in favour of TBAs. Photo by Robert Muhereza 

By Robert Muhereza   (email the author)

Posted  Friday, July 27  2012 at  01:00

Kabale District is working on a by-law to compel pregnant women to give birth at health facilities and penalise those who deliver aided by traditional birth attendants (TBAs).

District speaker Pastoli Twinomuhangi said on Wednesday that he is ready to present the draft by-law for the council’s consideration.
This follows a recent survey in Rukiga, one of the four counties in Kabale District, where it was found that nearly one in every two expectant women that TBAs help to give birth, die.

“An ordinance is already being drafted to compel mothers in labour to deliver at the established government health centers in order to save their lives and that of the babies,” Mr Twinomuhangi said.

However, according to District Health Officer Patrick Tusiime, the number of women delivered by TBAs has reduced due to intensified mobilisation through media and community meetings.

Half of pregnant women in the district now deliver at health facilities, up from 12 per cent five years ago, the doctor said.

Complaints
However, Ms Allen Busingye, a businesswoman in Kabale town, said some of them prefer the services of TBAs because they offer “motherly care unlike in the health centres where we are attended to by young and abusive nurses.

“The young nurses are rude to the mothers in labour pains,” she said.

The government outlawed the traditional birth attendants, but they continue to thrive especially in rural areas where public health services are either lacking or unaffordable.

The District Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Mr Nickson Kabuye, said his office is investigating reports that some health workers in the district on government payroll extort money from women seeking antenatal care, forcing them to turn to TBAs. The culprits, he said, will soon be exposed.

TBA head responds
The head of TBAs in the district, Mr Charity Mugisha, said an accusation pinning them on causing maternal deaths is baseless because reports of women dying in labour at hospitals are a common place hence not of their (TBAs) own making.

“Traditional Birth Attendants are complementing the government efforts in assisting pregnant mothers to have safe deliveries,” he said.

District vice chairperson Mary Bebwajuba noted that a shortage of qualified staff coupled with lack of ambulances are the reasons behind the delay of referrals, leading to many deaths of expectant women in the area due to delayed birth.

editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kabale+considers+law+to+force+pregnant+women+into+hospitals/-/688334/1463854/-/iox4poz/-/index.html

Activists and Advocates Ask the Ugandan Government Why Aren’t Dying Mothers a Priority?

Health activists and advocates march on Kampala streets with placards demanding increase in health sector budget and  a ruling on constitutional case of preventable maternal deaths

Senfuka Samuel

WRA Uganda

Public Interest Litigation

On 22^nd May 2012 over 100 activists and advocates from different organizations including WRA Uganda, under the Coalition to end Maternal Mortality were joined by ordinary citizens, grassroots home based healthcare providers and [1]media to march from Kamwokya, Kampala suburb through Kampala capital city streets to the Constitutional Court to handover a statement to the Registrar of the Court over the delayed ruling on a Constitutional Court Case Petition No. 16 of 2011on preventable maternal deaths. We were there to ask why do women continue to die from preventable pregnancy and childbirth related causes?

“This Petition was filed on 3 March 2011 and was not heard until October 2011, when the Attorney General raised a preliminary objection and the Justices said they would be giving a ruling as soon as possible,” said Nakibuuka Noor Musisi of Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD). “But seven months have passed since the objection, the ruling has not been delivered and meanwhile there are increasing cases of women dying every day.” A visibly disappointed Nakibuka added.

The newly released [2]report by WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and World Bank estimates that Uganda’s maternal mortality ratio has gone down from 435/100,000 to 310/100,000 live births compared to our Millennium Development Goal 5 target of reducing maternal deaths to 131/100,000 live births by 2015. This stubborn high mortality rate compelled health activists and advocates together with the families that have been directly affected by preventable maternal deaths to file a Constitutional Court Case on preventable maternal deaths in March 2011 under CEHURD.

The demonstration prompted the Judiciary to apologize to the health activists and advocates for the delayed ruling citing majorly administrative issues. His Worship Erias Kisawuzi, Court Registrar and Spokesperson for the Judiciary attributed the delay to having fewer judges who are also handling multiple cases including election appeals on top of a backlog of over 30,000 cases before them. He committed to discuss the matter with the judges and give a feedback on 25^th May 2012. The Registrar indeed fulfilled his commitment and assured a delegation of civil society advocates that the ruling would be delivered within 14days starting 25^th May 2012

Shrinking health sector financing

On the same day the advocates met with ministry of finance officials to lobby for more funds to the declining health sector budget. The activists and advocates were protesting Government’s unacceptable delay to addressing maternal deaths and related health priorities. Funding appropriated in 2011 to increase the number of health workers has not been forthcoming only to be surprised by a supplementary budget request to pay and recruit health workers tabled in Parliament on May 18, 2012, yet those resources were already approved in 2011/2012 budget.

 Members of the Coalition to End Maternal Mortality  hold a press conference before the march

“I could not believe that my government can spend 377 billion shillings (US $154 million) annually on medical expenses of its senior officials abroad! This huge sum of money could save many women from dying in hospitals because of no medicine, no midwives,” said Dorcas Amoding of CHAIN Uganda.

“Petition No. 16 of 2011 has highlighted the urgent need for government action to end the ongoing crisis of maternal deaths. Unfortunately, the proposed health budget is further proof that dying mothers are not a priority in Uganda. We urge the Ministry of Finance to increase spending in priority areas, such as scaling up the number of health workers, improving their remuneration, and increasing provision of essential medicines and equipment to save lives,” said Leonard Okello of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Uganda.

The health activists and advocates are seeking a court declaration that non-provision of essential maternal health workers, commodities and services in government health facilities leading to the death of women is an infringement on their rights to life and health. To which the Government Attorney General contends that this is a policy not a legal issue for the judiciary to decide.

The coalition to end Maternal Mortality is also calling on government to reconsider its proposed reduced budget for health sector for FY 2012/2013 if we are to make accelerated progress towards reduction of maternal and newborn deaths in Uganda.

---

[1] See some of the media coverage: Sound bites by BBC, Focus on Africa, http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Judiciary+apologises+over+delayed+maternal+health+ruling/-/688334/1411606/-/r9o625z/-/index.html, http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/631274-women-rights-activists-petition-court-over-maternal-deaths.html

[2]http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2012/Trends_in_maternal_mortality_A4-1.pdf

More March Phots  ©WRA

bbc coverage-soundbites 

Noor Nakibuuka submitting the complaint on behalf of the coalition to His Worship Erias Kisawuzi, Registrar and Spokesperson of the Judiciary

THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR SAVE THE CHILDREN AND WHITE RIBBON ALLIANCE TO WORK TOGETHER IN ENDING PREVENTABLE MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD DEATHS.

By Senfuka Samuel

WRA Uganda

Save the Children and White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA) converged in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 23^rd-27^th April 2012 for a Global Skillshare on accelerating efforts towards reduction of maternal, newborn and child deaths. The skillshare focused specially on experiences of campaigning and advocating for saving the lives of mothers, newborns and children. Participants’ vast experiences showed that their proven strategies and interventions can be scaled up to drive down significantly the reduction of the number of women, newborns and children dying from causes that are preventable or treatable.

Every year an estimated 358,000 mothers die due to pregnancy related complication and 8 million children die of preventable causes (WHO 2008). Save the Children and WRA believe that with committed leadership, increased human and financial resources for health, increased public and community awareness and responsibility, this sad trend of maternal, newborn and child deaths can be reversed and ended. The fact that both organizations work to ensure that no child is born to die and pregnancy and childbirth is safe for all women, makes the bond stronger.

With participants from across the world, the global skillshare presented inspiring experiences about campaigning and advocacy. Important lessons were learnt from Save the Children led “EVERYONE” campaign, and impressive lessons from WRA’s Accountability and Mobilization experiences. From a personal point of view, I was inspired by Save the Children in Sierra Leone’s experiences on Health Sector Budget Tracking as well as WRA India’s work on Social Accountability of maternal health.

I learnt that budget tracking is a step by step process with clear objectives of what you want to achieve with the budget. It’s critical to mobilize partners including government to work together, undertake budget analysis and ascertain information for budget advocacy and above all it’s important to monitor budget utilization. On the other hand, India takes accountability to the grassroots through people centred advocacy, by mobilizing community members and civil society to hold governments, policy makers and implementers accountable to their commitments. This approach empowers the ordinary citizens and citizen groups to participate directly in demanding for improved access to maternal and child health services. Such social accountability tools used in India include public hearings, checklists, verbal autopsy and community scorecards.

Other interesting experiences shared included working with health workers and parliamentarians as champions, media, technology for health, and communicating impact. I left the skillshare more energized and inspired to move forward with the cause of maternal, newborn and child deaths.

At the end of the skillshare it was demonstrated that both organizations have unique strengths making a case for collaboration and partnership critical if we are to achieve our ultimate collective goal. Working together means more synergies, more women, newborns and children are saved and living a better quality of life. The time is now!

Historic Commitment from the Inter- Parliamentary Union in Securing Women’s and Children’s Health

Participants during the CSOs maternal health panel discuss at Parliament of Uganda Conference Hall 

By Senfuka Samuel
WRA Uganda

The Parliament of Uganda hosted the 126th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 31st March to 5th April 2012 in Kampala under the  theme “Parliaments and People: Bridging the Gap”

In the assembly parliamentarians  from over 120 countries met to discuss women’s and children’s  health from a human rights perspective - as part of the resolution “Access to Health as a Basic Right: The Role of Parliaments in Addressing Key Challenges to Securing the Health of Women and Children.” -  They also discussed the crucial role that Parliaments and individual parliamentarians have to play in order to realize better health for women and children.

The IPU’s focus on women’s and children’s health was due to prevailing alarming global statistics where: every day an estimated 1,000 mothers die due to pregnancy related complication. This is 358,000 deaths every year (UN 2008). 99% of these deaths occur in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia; the vast majority of these deaths are entirely preventable when there is access to a skilled health worker. For every woman that dies in childbirth, 30 more women have to live with long term debilitating conditions such as fistula.

These disgraceful statistics are making it clear that urgent action is needed at all levels to accelerate progress towards reduction of maternal deaths (MDG 5) by 75% by 2015.

The White Ribbon Alliance joined a coalition of civil society organizations working in maternal newborn and child health in Uganda and organized a number of successful side events and activities around the IPU. This included, media activities- Press Conference, Press Statement, Radio and TV debates, the White Ribbon Citizen News desk (http://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/index.cfm/citizen-voice/), press supplement (http://www.wrauganda.blogspot.com/2012/04/civil-society-coalition-on-maternal.html), radio and TV debates.

Together we organized four panel discussions on maternal, newborn and child health, child nutrition and sustainable development with a mix of panelists and perspectives from Uganda and elsewhere. In the panels we analyzed the draft resolution on access to health and submitted recommendations for amendments to strengthen the wording of the resolution. 50% of the CSOs recommendations were considered in the final adopted resolution-http://www.ipu.org/conf-e/126/Res-3.htm  

The IPU recognized the vital role CSOs play in supporting Governments in realizing the commitments to women’s and children’s health and opened space for us to add value to the assembly’s final outcomes.

Working in a coalition was successful in giving CSOs a united voice and helping to galvanizing and strengthening efforts. Moreover the CSOs working in close partnership with Parliament of Uganda (the host) helped to strengthen the linkage between parliaments and the people, we will build on these partnerships for future activities in Uganda.

Maternal Health Panel

White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) Uganda coordinated the panel discussion on maternal health under the topic: Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Deaths by 2015: The role of Parliamentarians. Panelists presented on issues of accountability and commitments, human resources for health and health financing as well as sharing parliamentary experiences, lessons and challenges in legislation, budgeting and oversight for maternal health. These sparked off honest debate among the audience composed of MPs, CSO representatives, health workers and health professional bodies, academia, WRA members among others.

 Panelists from L-R: Dr. John Nduba (AMREF), Hon. Alex Byarugaba (MDGs Forum of Parliament), Dr. Jotham Musinguzi (Moderator), Ms Theresa Shaver (WRA Global) and Hon. Sylvia Namabidde (MP Uganda)

In her presentation, WRA Global President Ms Theresa Shaver said that: ''In many ways, these are good times for all who care about the health of women and children. It’s becoming increasingly clear that when governments invest in health workers – trained professionals with midwifery skills – and make sure that they are employed, and are well supported within a functioning health care system, they save the lives of millions of women and their newborns around the world.”

She noted that joint advocacy has raised much of the necessary political will. Global leaders now recognize that the health of women is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The September 2010 launch of the UN Secretary General’s ‘Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health’ has led to $70 billion worth of financial, policy and service delivery commitments from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society.

“Now it’s time for us all to turn those pledges into reality. The international community is rising to the challenge with a strong focus on implementation and accountability. Progress is being carefully monitored, while together we are pushing for new commitments from governments and other sectors,” She added

Dr. John Nduba, Director, Reproductive and Child Health at AMREF) said that many African countries have not met 50% of the 2001 Abuja target for a health budget of 15% of GDP, health systems in Sub Saharan Africa are dilapidated and under resourced. Health budgets are not gender analyzed making the needs of women and children receive low priority and policies like persistence of user fees. He asked Parliaments to accelerate Progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 by increasing the health budget towards 15% of GDP and demanding governments’ action on commitments made to the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

Hon. Sylvia Namabidde Uganda MP highlighted some of the achievements the Ugandan parliament has made amidst challenges. She said that as peoples’ representatives, they speak on behalf of women and children and also represent the people in dealing with the executive arm of government. “We have used this mandate to ask Ministers questions on the floor of Parliament and also sponsor motions on matters related to maternal health. No matter how well laws and policies are designed, they won’t be effective if there is no funding to support their implementation.” She cautioned.

“We managed to pass US $130million World Bank loan for reproductive health and $30million was specifically to finance the Road-map to accelerate reduction of maternal and new born mortality. However, our oversight function is affected when Audit reports are received late and when government does not allow sufficient access to information and participation in joint health sector reviews.” She revealed.

 Moving Forward

It was a busy week for WRA Uganda and our civil society partners; we made progress in raising the profile of women and children to parliamentarians and encouraging them to take action, to keep this momentum up. There are still a number of things we need to do:

• It’s critical to maintain the momentum and ensure that the resolution is implemented in respective countries. The resolution is an important tool to holding our respective parliaments accountable to their own decisions made during the historic 126th IPU 2012.

• MDG 5 is the most off course but we can turn this around with the right parliamentary action through their representative, legislative, budget appropriation and oversight roles. Parliamentarians have a key role in ensuring governments are held accountable to their commitments to prevention of avoidable maternal and child deaths.

Parliamentarians cannot do this alone, it requires a multi-stakeholder approach including but not limited to civil society organizations, media, community and traditional leaders, and faith based leaders, women, men, health professionals, private sector, and donor community among others.

Hon. Paula Turyahikayo, Co-Rapporteur of the IPU Resolution on Health of women and children speaking during one of the CSOs panel discussions as other Rapporteurs look on.

 

Coalition Member organizations: WRA Uganda, World Vision, Save the Children, UNHCO, CEHURD, Mildmay, Save the Mothers, AGHA, National NGO Forum, Parent Network, AMREF Uganda, WIMA, KHEFO, UGAN, Mama’s Club, VEDCO, Fanta 2, Food Talk, etal.

Partners: The Office of the Speaker, MDGs Forum of Parliament, Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians, Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children, respective IPU sub committees and more importantly Hon. Paula Turyahikayo, Co-Rapporteur.

Historical Commitment from the Inter- Parliamentary Union in Securing Women’s and Children’s Health

By Senfuka Samuel
WRA Uganda

Participants during the CSOs maternal health panel discuss at Parliament of Uganda Conference Hall

The Parliament of Uganda hosted the 126th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 31st March to 5th April 2012 in Kampala under the  theme “Parliaments and People: Bridging the Gap”

In the assembly parliamentarians  from over 120 countries met to discuss women’s and children’s  health from a human rights perspective - as part of the resolution “Access to Health as a Basic Right: The Role of Parliaments in Addressing Key Challenges to Securing the Health of Women and Children.” -  They also discussed the crucial role that Parliaments and individual parliamentarians have to play in order to realize better health for women and children.

The IPU’s focus on women’s and children’s health was due to prevailing alarming global statistics where: every day an estimated 1,000 mothers die due to pregnancy related complication. This is 358,000 deaths every year (UN 2008). 99% of these deaths occur in Sub Saharan Africa and South East Asia; the vast majority of these deaths are entirely preventable when there is access to a skilled health worker. For every woman that dies in childbirth, 30 more women have to live with long term debilitating conditions such as fistula.

These disgraceful statistics are making it clear that urgent action is needed at all levels to accelerate progress towards reduction of maternal deaths (MDG 5) by 75% by 2015.

The White Ribbon Alliance joined a coalition of civil society organizations working in maternal newborn and child health in Uganda and organized a number of successful side events and activities around the IPU. This included, media activities- Press Conference, Press Statement, Radio and TV debates, the White Ribbon Citizen News desk (http://www.whiteribbonalliance.org/index.cfm/citizen-voice/), press supplement (http://www.wrauganda.blogspot.com/2012/04/civil-society-coalition-on-maternal.html), radio and TV debates.

Together we organized four panel discussions on maternal, newborn and child health, child nutrition and sustainable development with a mix of panelists and perspectives from Uganda and elsewhere. In the panels we analyzed the draft resolution on access to health and submitted recommendations for amendments to strengthen the wording of the resolution. 50% of the CSOs recommendations were considered in the final draft resolution.

The IPU recognized the vital role CSOs play in supporting Governments in realizing the commitments to women’s and children’s health and opened space for us to add value to the assembly’s final outcomes.

Working in a coalition was successful in giving CSOs a united voice and helping to galvanizing and strengthening efforts. Moreover the CSOs working in close partnership with Parliament of Uganda (the host) helped to strengthen the linkage between parliaments and the people, we will build on these partnerships for future activities in Uganda.

Maternal Health Panel

White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) Uganda coordinated the panel discussion on maternal health under the topic: Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Deaths by 2015: The role of Parliamentarians. Panelists presented on issues of accountability and commitments, human resources for health and health financing as well as sharing parliamentary experiences, lessons and challenges in legislation, budgeting and oversight for maternal health. These sparked off honest debate among the audience composed of MPs, CSO representatives, health workers and health professional bodies, academia, WRA members among others.

 

 Panelists from L-R: Dr. John Nduba (AMREF), Hon. Alex Byarugaba (MDGs Forum of Parliament), Dr. Jotham Musinguzi (Moderator), Ms Theresa Shaver (WRA Global) and Hon. Sylvia Namabidde (MP Uganda)

In her presentation, WRA Global President Ms Theresa Shaver said that: ''In many ways, these are good times for all who care about the health of women and children. It’s becoming increasingly clear that when governments invest in health workers – trained professionals with midwifery skills – and make sure that they are employed, and are well supported within a functioning health care system, they save the lives of millions of women and their newborns around the world.”

She noted that joint advocacy has raised much of the necessary political will. Global leaders now recognize that the health of women is key to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The September 2010 launch of the UN Secretary General’s ‘Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health’ has led to $70 billion worth of financial, policy and service delivery commitments from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society.

“Now it’s time for us all to turn those pledges into reality. The international community is rising to the challenge with a strong focus on implementation and accountability. Progress is being carefully monitored, while together we are pushing for new commitments from governments and other sectors,” She added

Dr. John Nduba, Director, Reproductive and Child Health at AMREF) said that many African countries have not met 50% of the 2001 Abuja target for a health budget of 15% of GDP, health systems in Sub Saharan Africa are dilapidated and under resourced. Health budgets are not gender analyzed making the needs of women and children receive low priority and policies like persistence of user fees. He asked Parliaments to accelerate Progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 by increasing the health budget towards 15% of GDP and demanding governments’ action on commitments made to the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

Hon. Sylvia Namabidde Uganda MP highlighted some of the achievements the Ugandan parliament has made amidst challenges. She said that as peoples’ representatives, they speak on behalf of women and children and also represent the people in dealing with the executive arm of government. “We have used this mandate to ask Ministers questions on the floor of Parliament and also sponsor motions on matters related to maternal health. No matter how well laws and policies are designed, they won’t be effective if there is no funding to support their implementation.” She cautioned.

“We managed to pass US $130million World Bank loan for reproductive health and $30million was specifically to finance the Road-map to accelerate reduction of maternal and new born mortality. However, our oversight function is affected when Audit reports are received late and when government does not allow sufficient access to information and participation in joint health sector reviews.” She revealed.

 Moving Forward

It was a busy week for WRA Uganda and our civil society partners; we made progress in raising the profile of women and children to parliamentarians and encouraging them to take action, to keep this momentum up. There are still a number of things we need to do:

• It’s critical to maintain the momentum and ensure that the resolution is implemented in respective countries. The resolution is an important tool to holding our respective parliaments accountable to their own decisions made during the historic 126th IPU 2012.

• MDG 5 is the most off course but we can turn this around with the right parliamentary action through their representative, legislative, budget appropriation and oversight roles. Parliamentarians have a key role in ensuring governments are held accountable to their commitments to prevention of avoidable maternal and child deaths.

Parliamentarians cannot do this alone, it requires a multi-stakeholder approach including but not limited to civil society organizations, media, community and traditional leaders, and faith based leaders, women, men, health professionals, private sector, and donor community among others.

Coalition Member organizations: WRA Uganda, World Vision, Save the Children, UNHCO, CEHURD, Mildmay, Save the Mothers, AGHA, National NGO Forum, Parent Network, AMREF Uganda, WIMA, KHEFO, UGAN, Mama’s Club, VEDCO, Fanta 2, Food Talk, etal.

Partners: The Office of the Speaker, MDGs Forum of Parliament, Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians, Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children, respective IPU sub committees and more importantly Hon. Paula Turyahikayo, Co-Rapporteur.

Civil Society Coalition on Maternal Newborn and Child Health Implores Parliamentarians to Hold their Governments Accountable, Advocate for Allocation of Resources to Health Ministries to Combat Maternal and Child Deaths.

Representatives of the Civil Society Coalition on MNCH addressing the press: L-R Mr. Kintu James-World Vision, Ms Robina Bitey-WRA Uganda, Mr. Topher Mugumya-Save the Children and Ms Robinah Kaitiritimba, UNHCO

By Elman Nsinda

WRA Uganda

The Civil Society Coalition of Uganda working in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health have implored the Members of Parliaments to hold governments accountable for increasing budget allocation to maternal health; especially to African governments who committed themselves to allocate over 15% of their National budgets to health ministries, also to hold governments accountable over implementation of policies in existence and international commitments such as UN Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s health, the Abuja declaration Maputo Plan of Action, and strengthen health systems, among others.

This was during the Press Conference convened in Kampala at the eve of the Inter-Parliamentary assembly. The assembly is scheduled for 31^st March to 5^th April 2012.

According to United Nations over 350.000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth every year; 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries and more than 7.5 million children die annually before reaching their fifth birthday, with over 40% dying in their first month.

Addressing the press, Mr. James Kintu on behalf of the coalition attributed maternal death to weak health systems, inadequate financial and human resources to health sector, and inadequate nutrition, among others.

The coalition demands that urgent attention be put on nutrition needs, and the rights of women and children to access health. They appeal to parliamentarians to take possible measures to harness political will as well as lobby for resources necessary to avert maternal and child deaths. They also want MPs to use the oversight and accountability tools throughout the budgetary process to ensure that adequate domestic expenditures are allocated for reproductive, maternal newborn and child health and nutrition; ensuring that resources are properly used.

At the same press conference, the National Coordinator of White Ribbon Alliance For Safe motherhood Uganda Ms Robina Biteyi called on the Parliament of Uganda to follow up the implementation of their resolutions passed in a motion raised on 15 December 2011, where they (MPs) instructed government to: recentralize recruitment of health workers in order to address life threatening shortages, implement the national plan to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV, and report to parliament on the status of recruiting 2,000 additional midwives within two months, among others.

“It’s not enough for parliament to pass a motion-they must oversee implementation of the motion.”Robina Biteyi urged.

The organizations also appealed to the constitutional court to proceed with urgent attention with the petition which criminalizes government’s action of not providing essential medical commodities and health services to expectant mothers.

The coalition includes: The White Ribbon Alliance, World Vision, Save the Children, Uganda National Health Consumers Organization, AGHA, Save the Children, Save the Mothers, CEHURD, Alliance, CIDI, HAG, HURINET, UCBAC, UGAN, Parent Network and UHCA among others.

Among the coalition Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly side events include holding panel discussions in collaboration with Parliament of Uganda on the following topics (All to be held at Parliament Conference Hall).

1. Making the Scaling up of child nutrition an investment priority for prosperity: An urgent call for political action
2. Accelerating the reduction of maternal and newborn deaths by 2015: The role of parliamentarians
3. From commitments to action: The role of legislators in ending preventable deaths among children

Media activities including TV debates, press releases are also planned in addition to an exhibition at Serena Hotel one of the official IPU host. Come and visit WRA Citizen News desk and have your say.

The coalition includes; The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, World Vision, Save the Children, Uganda National Health Consumers Organization, AGHA, Save the Children, Save the Mothers, CEHURD, Alliance, CIDI, HAG, HURINET, UCBAC, UGAN, Parent Network and UHCA among others.