Strategic advocacy and maternal mortality: moving targets and the millennium development goals

Overview

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the latest international development strategy. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the Millennium Declaration, signed by all UN member countries, set out a number of Millennium Development Goals. . The debates around the choice of MDGs, and the first steps of implementation, have threatened to push many women’s health concerns off the policy map. But I argue in this article that there is space for feminist action around the remaining MDG on reducing maternal mortality. I discuss strategies to address maternal mortality and emphasise the importance of all women having access to EmOC (emergency obstetric care) in the event of birth complications. Using this MDG, we have an important opening for strategic advocacy focused on accountable health systems that can deliver the care necessary to save women’s lives and improve their health. That focus will enable us to demand that attention be given to the globalisation policies that have contributed to the devastation of health systems in many parts of the world.

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