Economic Crisis is Threat and Incentive for Women’s Health Care

NEW YORK, June 16 – Rising global economic pressure threatens the health of women and children most, even as it sparks new approaches to financing better care, according to a United Nations study released yesterday.

The report, published by the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on behalf of the Network of Global Leaders, says goals relating to child and maternal health are the most “elusive” of the eight MDGs and the least likely to be achieved by their 2015 target date.

“Efforts to reduce maternal and newborn deaths through the MDGs have so far failed miserably,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, which spearheads the Network of Global Leaders. “We all need to invest more, work more closely together and secure systems that must deliver on our commitments.”

The study calls for increasing global health spending by $36 billion to $45 billion by 2015, funded through innovative measures such as levies on airline tickets, currency transfers and tobacco, as well as front-loaded investments and private donations. Policy recommendations include streamlining and coordinating aid operations, removing access barriers and increasing accountability for results.

One proposal, providing free maternal health care or paying poor women to receive it, is working in India, according to Norway’s UN Ambassador Morten Wetland. He told National Public Radio that the pilot program pays pregnant women $15 to $20 to come to a clinic to give birth.

“It matters so much for these mothers because they can stand up against those who are more traditional in their village or in their family who believe they should do it the way they always have done it,” at home, Wetland said. The program offering greater maternal health care has slashed maternal deaths in the area, he said, and is likely to be expanded to 49 more countries with new U.S. and U.N. funding. The Group of Eight major industrial powers is expected to take up the funding need at a summit meeting in Italy July 8-10.

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