In September 2000, world leaders set far-sighted targets – Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – for the health of women and children, gender equality, education, the environment and global partnerships.
The bulk of women in Africa are rural dwellers, guarded on all sides by custom, tradition and ignorance. They are not aware of modern methods of reproductive health rights. Custom and tradition would not allow the embrace of reproductive health right, where acceptable, may not be available, accessible, and affordable. This is compounded by poverty.
The Millennium Development Goals are lofty ideals, but there are land-mines on the path of Africa’s march towards their realisation by 2015. The most critical of these as already enunciated is, the operating philosophy of development across Africa, which is anti-thetical to the actualisation of these laudable objectives.
The Millennium Development Goal 5, Abuja Declaration of April 2001, and commitments towards FP 2020, are among the commitments made to improve the health and well-being of women in Nigeria.
With less than 297 days left to the MDG deadline, Nigeria is still far from achieving the Millennium Development Goal 5 which aims at reducing by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) and achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.
“Government at all levels and partners should work together to ensure that Nigeria’s goal of 36 percent Contraceptive Prevalence Rate is achieved by 2018. Culturally appropriate information and facts about FP and its benefits should be widely available to all.
“In particular, the youth should know all about FP, well before they engage in active family life. It is only when young women begin early to know their reproductive health that they can genuinely achieve responsible family life. When all families are planned, the larger society will begin to also plan its affairs and eventually achieve development,” says Ibeawuchi Charity, the advocacy advisor, Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI).
For Ayodele Adesanmi of Media, Development Communications (DevComs) Network, “Nigeria will have to do something drastic to achieve MDG 5. These means intensifying efforts made regarding Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), orientation of public, wide adoption of free maternal and child health programmes, increased funding of maternal health programmes, tracking and learning from causes of maternal deaths, and something very innovative”.
With the MDGs concluding at the end of 2015, world leaders have called for an ambitious, long-term agenda to improve people’s lives and protect the planet for future generations. This post-2015 development agenda is expected to tackle many issues, including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.
However, Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the executive director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), has described maternal health issue as a host of human rights issues, including social, cultural, legal and accountability issues.
In her words, “In the past, people look at the issue of maternal health from medical point of view. However, if you don’t situate it between the human right discourses, you may not be able to have a holistic understanding of what maternal health is and the implication of maternal health. When you situate it in that manner you will be able to understand that maternal health is a social issue, cultural issue and legal issue. it’s an issue of accountability.
“The other issue is also the fact that you deserve information that can help you secure your health as a woman. Your right to Family Planning, contraception and all that. The fact that those information are also not there is also a violation of your rights to information,” she added.
Globally, an estimated 289,000 women died during pregnancy and childbirth in 2013, a decline of 45 percent from levels in 1990. Most of them died because they had no access to skilled routine and emergency care.
Since 1990, some countries in Asia and Northern Africa have more than halved maternal mortality. Increasing numbers of women are now seeking care during childbirth in health facilities and therefore it is important to ensure that quality of care provided is optimal.
The UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health aims to prevent 33 million unwanted pregnancies between 2011 and 2015 and to save the lives of women who are at risk of dying of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, including unsafe abortion.
Kemi Ajumobi
