speech by he at carmma side event ticad

7/28/2019 Speech by He at Carmma Side Event Ticad

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SPEECH BY

HER EXCELLENCY MRS. JOYCE BANDA

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI

ON

RETURNS ON INVESTMENTS OF MATERNAL

HEALTH: FAMILY PLANNING 202 AND THE

CAMPAIGN FOR ACCELERATED REDUCTION OF

MATERNAL MORTALITY IN AFRICA-CARMMA

DURING

TICAD V, YOKOHAMA, JAPAN

SATURDAY, 1ST JUNE, 2013

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Chairperson

Your Excellencies

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

I feel greatly honored and privileged to give a key note

address on the Returns on investments in maternal

health: Family Planning 2020 and the Campaign for

Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa

(CARMMA). I wish to thank the co-organizers of this very

important meeting for giving major attention to issues of

maternal health in Africa.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

Since the founding of CARMMA in May 2009, 38 African

states have launched the campaign in Africa to date. The

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campaign has attracted very high level political

commitment at national and regional levels. This has

given more visibility to issues of maternal, new born and

child health as governments, communities and private

sector took ownership of the programmes as they

participated in the social mobilization and implementation

of projects.

In operationalising the Campaign for Accelerated

Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa many countries

continue to implement evidence based, cost-effective and

high impact interventions to ensure that No woman dies

while giving life. It is important to note that improvements

in Maternal, newborn and child health are critical to overall

development of nations. A huge body of research work

and general experience have shown quite remarkable

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results of tangible returns on investment in maternal

health which are far reaching.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

As a mother myself, I think how easily: it could have been

me to have died when on 23rd January 1984, I was lucky I

was saved from post partum hemorrhage that I suffered

during one of my deliveries. This was only because

qualified doctor was available to me. However, so many

women in Africa are not as lucky as I was.

In many of our communities in Africa, when a woman gets

pregnant, almost everyone is anxious: anxious because

they have seen so many women die while giving birth.

And yet in some societies, mostly in developed countries,

when a woman is pregnant, she and her family celebrateand are truly expectant - expectant that she will deliver

safely, expectant for the child she will deliver. This should

not be the case. We need to eliminate these injustices to

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our women in Africa. African women are entitled to enjoy

their full reproductive health life.


I am pleased to inform you that when the Campaign for

Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa was

launched in May 2009, Malawi was one of the 8 countriesthat were selected to spearhead this effort. I was honored

to serve as Malawis Goodwill Ambassador for safe

motherhood under the CARMMA Initiative. Because we

believe in the value of CARMMA, we launched it at both

national and district levels. We pledged our full support to

CARMMAs agenda of accelerating actions to reduce

maternal and associated infant mortality; mobilizing

political commitment and support of key stakeholders and

communities for additional resources and involvement,

and building on tested best practices.


I believe that in order to adequately reduce maternal

mortality, it is essential to address poverty and gender

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inequality, which together affect the demand for, utilization

and supply of maternal healthcare services.

There is a critical link between population change and

economic growth. In most countries, falling fertility rates

have led to expanding working-adult populations and a

smaller proportion of dependent children. Educated girls

lead demographic change. An educated girl marries later

and has fewer children. She seeks medical care sooner

for self and children and thereby increases the probability

of her childrens survival. She is likely to improve her

childrens learning and education as a result reduces

overall fertility rates. The economic and social impact can

be transformative. Family planning can play an important

role in facilitating economic growth.

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While it is critical for policies and programs to improve and

expand services, as well as reduce the burden of cost for

low-income women, these actions per see may not be

sufficient to guarantee adequate returns on investments in

maternal health care. Evidence has shown that the

disappointing progress made toward Millennium

Development Goal 5 could be due to the failure of

programs to take a comprehensive approach to the health

of poor mothers. It is important that womens needs,

aspirations and realities become central drivers of policies

and programs to increase maternal healthcare access and

utilization. Women must be empowered and have to be

actively involved in all decisions related to their health and

well-being. As I have said many times before in different

forums, we cannot talk about empowering a particular

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group without involving the group itself. No decisions

should be made about women without women

involvement. Equally, no decisions should be made about

the girl child without her involvement in the processes.

Therefore, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, the

message that I bring to you here and now is that

nothing for us without us. Nothing for women without

their involvement and inclusion.

We need to make deliberate efforts and policies that will

aim at eliminating the structural barriers posed by poverty

and gender inequality in economic empowerment of

women. Such efforts will have a meaningful impact on

maternal mortality, while creating the opportunity for real

and long-lasting improvement in womens health and

overall well-being.

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Since I took over Government in Malawi, we have made

considerable progress. Key health indicators are showing

a tremendous improvement, our Maternal Mortality ratio

was at 675 per 100,000 live births (DHS 2010) and UN

Estimates 2012 puts Malawi at 460 per 100,000 live births.

Infant Mortality has declined from 72 per 1000 live births in

2004 to 66 per 1000 live births in 2010 (DHS)

As a country, we are convinced that we must invest in our

people especially women taking advantage of the

demographic dividend of our large numbers of women in

the country. Accordingly, as women constitute the bulk of

our respective population particularly in Africa, no realistic

and sustainable economic growth, be it in GDP variable or

in any indicator, will be registered if women are not part of

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the growth and development equation and processes. As

women provide the bulk of the labour force in the

agriculture sector which is the hub of many African

economies as well as those of many other third world

countries no meaningful growth and development will be

achieved if maternal problems and challenges remain

unaddressed. Maternal health is one of the serious

problems affecting women. Suffice therefore to say that

maternal health remains one of the main challenges to

realize sustainable economic development.


We believe if we invest in health, especially womens

health, education, and skills building, we can use this

people power to transform Malawi into a medium income

country.

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Malawi launched CARMMA in August 2009 and as a

country we have learnt and implemented many innovative

ways for the campaign. We have made sure that there is

broad ownership of the campaign including private sector,

traditional leadership and the local health workers.

We have been able to mobilize equipments, supplies and

financial resources from the private sector for use in

maternity units and training for local health workers.

From an advocacy point of view, we have taken on board

both technical and traditional structures and systems in

our programmes. The establishment of the Chiefs

Committees has helped us sensitize communities on

sexual reproductive health services and encouraged

pregnant women to seek services at hospitals and clinics.

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To support this demand, we are mobilizing resources to

build waiting homes for pregnant women that live far from

health facilities. This will enable them to come and await

labour closer to the hospital just after the eighth month of

pregnancy. In this regard many of the pregnant women

can have their deliveries handled by a skilled birth

attendant.

Currently, 200 young women, from 20 districts across the

country have been recruited through their Chiefs for an 18

months community midwifery training program. Upon

graduation, the community midwives will be bonded and

work for their respective communities for five years. The

aim is to ensure that mothers do not travel long distances

to seek maternal health care services thereby averting

possible pregnancy complications.

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To further rally and galvanize our efforts and to

demonstrate my governments commitment to the cause, I

launched a Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and

Safe Motherhood with emphasis on reducing maternal

mortality, improving girls education, promoting women

rights and empowerment and championing family planning

programmes. As already alluded to, a committee of chiefs

facilitates advocacy and implementation of safe

motherhood initiatives at community level.

Government has decided to allocate enough resources to

safe motherhood to ensure that these efforts are

sustained so that our mothers should not die while giving

birth.


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My recommendation is that globally there are strategies

we should implement to ensure that women attain enjoymaternal health and full reproductive rights; and are at the

centre of our economies. These strategies include:

1. Develop policies and programmes that bring

incomes into household so that children are not

considered as wealth for families.

2. Invest to support education for the girl child so that

girls can complete primary, secondary and tertiary

education, especially in Africa and Asia. This is

critical in families where they have no reliable

incomes.

3. Promote the involvement of traditional leaders as

custodian of culture and traditions. Traditional

leaders enjoy power and influence in society and

we can redirect this influence to positive energies.

4. Engage and involve male folks in family planning

and maternal health programmes because of

patriarchal societies and attitudes.

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5. Provide economic empowerment as this leads to

social emancipation. This among other things

empowers women to make informed decisions that

affect them including political participation,

reproductive rights and education of their children.

6. Establish institutional framework that will enable

women and girls to sustain the achievements

made. For example, we need support mechanism

for Parliamentarians, Presidents, and women who

have achieved various senior decision making

positions that they do not drop out from their

successes.


I am committed to seeing to it that the fight for maternal

health succeeds. In this regard, I have just established a

Mudzi Transformation Initiative where I want to

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modernise our villages and ensure that we stop a vicious

cycle of underdevelopment and poverty. To realize this,

we must invest in the village where our people are.

With this Village Transformation Initiative, I see a village

with a clinic. I see a village with clean water. I see a village

with a modern school. I see a village with a micro-finance

bank. I see majority of my people becoming financial

citizens.


If we cannot uplift this village woman to earn decent

income in the household, the vicious cycle of population

growth, malnutrion, maternal health and poverty will

remain with us. If the Family Planning 2020 has to realise

its dream of reaching additional 120 million women more

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by 2020, we need to go to the grassroot where these

women are. If the Family Planning Summit of July 2012 in

London has to bear fruit, we need to engage the women

where they are. If we have to address the core values of

poverty and human security, we need to be where the

people are. We must go to the village of Africa and there

uplift our people.


I am a victim of these challenges and therefore I will not

rest until this campaign for Accelerated Reduction of

Maternal Mortality in Africa-CARMMA has been achieved.

In this, I am very grateful to our partners UNFP, Melinda

Gates and many others for helping us on this journey to

realize maternal health for all our people.

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I therefore urge you all: governments, non-governmental

organizations, and private sector and development

partners to ensure that womens rights and womens

health are accorded the priority they deserve. We all need

to reinforce our commitments to accelerating reduction of

Maternal Mortality in Africa so that no woman should die

while giving life.

Finally, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I salute

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, UNFPA, the

African Union Commission, the Asian Population and

Development Association, the International Planned

Parenthood Federation and the Japanese Organization for

International Cooperation on Family Planning for

organizing this symposium. It is my hope that more

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resources for maternal health and family planning will be

mobilized to save the needy women of the continents

especially Africa.

I thank you all for your attention.

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speech by he at carmma side event ticad

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