The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has urged Tanzania to offer more support to women in spacing children so as to prevent them from dying while giving birth.
According to the Tanzania Demographic Surveysof 2004, maternal mortality rate in the country currently stands at 578 perevery 1,000 live births, one of the highest in sub Saharan Africa and it has remained so for the past ten years.
UNFPA Executive Director Ms Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said while handing over 30,000 sets of implanon contraceptives worth USD640,000 that it was not acceptable for women to continue dying while reasonable interventions that could save life of a pregnant mother were known. MsThoraya who is on her five-day official visit to Tanzania to talk with nationalleaders on Tanzania`s progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals3, 5 and 6, said at a press conference that one of the interventions that couldbe used to avert the deaths is access to family planning services.
“In our world today, a woman dies every minute while giving birth.
This is unacceptable, especially when we know that there are affordable interventions that can save the lives of women,`` said MsThoraya.
MDGs 3, 5 and 6 focus on promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women, improving sexual and reproductive health and combatingHIV/Aids and malaria and other diseases.
Although Tanzania has been able to make significant progress in reducing child mortality, it is only likely to meetgoal 4 that targets reducing child mortality (at under-five mortality to about54 per 1000 live births by 2015), according to recent estimates.
Ms Thorayaadded that UNFPA was committed to ensure that reproductive health supplies wereavailable in Tanzania and elsewhere.
On a positive note, she applauded the Healthand Social Services ministry for setting aside a budget for contraceptives butchallenged it to ensure that resources were released on time.
``I take thisopportunity to congratulate the Government of Tanzania on its leadership inreproductive health commodity security.
The Health and Social Welfareministry is playing a key coordinating role among partners and it monitorsavailability of contraceptives nationwide,” she said.
For his part, Health and Social Welfareminister Prof. David Mwakyusa said there has been a high shortage ofcontraceptives, especially implanon in the past few months.
``UNFPA being oneof our frontline partners in Reproductive Health realised the importance oftaking immediate measure to address the serious problem…,`` Prof. Mwakyusasaid.
The government increased budget allocationfor the health sector to 100 per cent in the 2008/09 financial year, accordingto the minister, but the amount was still below the 2001 Abuja agreed target of15 per cent.
African governments agreed to allocate 15 per cent of theirnational budgets to health care by 2010, as per the Abuja commitment of 2001.
Butit is only Gambia and Botswana who have met the promise.
Prof. Mwakyusa toldthe UNFPA chief that the government was planning to build a dispensary in everyvillage and a health centre in every ward through the new Primary Health CareDevelopment Programme, which has already been adopted.
``Safe Motherhood isone of the strategies which we implement to reduce Maternal and Child Mortality.When family planning is well utilised it reduces Maternal Mortality by 32 percent and infant mortality by 10 per cent,`` Mwakyusa said.
UNFPA ha
