H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque MP, Hon. Minister of Health and Family Welfare will Virtually Launch a Maternal Mortality Reduction Project on 28 Sep 2020 at 3:30 pm.
The Hon. Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) of the Government of Bangladesh H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque MP will launch a Project on Maternal Mortality Reduction in Bangladesh on 28 September 2020 at 03:30 PM.
As we all know, the Maternal Mortality specifically refers to the mothers dying from pregnancy and childbirth related complications, which is easily preventable if the appropriates measures are undertaken. One of the indicators of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) No. 3.1 calls for reduction of Maternal Mortality to 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030. According to 2017 estimates, 170 mothers per 100,000 live births lost their lives in Bangladesh, albeit still in better position compared to the neighboring countries. While accomplishing rapid socio-economic developments and internationally recognized as an emerging economic tiger, Government of Bangladesh is fiercely determined and aggressively pursuing all possible endeavors to improve public health specially reducing the Maternal Mortality from 170 to 70, or even less as enshrined by the SDG 2030 Agenda. Previously Bangladesh Prime Minister received multiple international awards for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before SDGs were adopted.
Partners in Population and Development (PPD), an international Inter-Governmental Organization of 27 developing countries, headquartered in Dhaka, has jointly undertaken a project with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to reduce Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh with the technical and financial support from the Government of China. The Project on: “Providing Comprehensive, Safe and Appropriate Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Hemorrhage for Reducing Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh” is primarily aimed at addressing postpartum hemorrhage, which is the dominant cause of Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh. While the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) will be directly engaged in the project implementation with MOHFW and PPD, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Directorate General of Drug Administration DGDA) will extend crucial assistance to the Project.
The project is funded by the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund (SSCAF) of China created under CHINAAID. The fundamental objective of creating SSCAF by China is to help the developing countries to improve lives of their people by accelerated implementation of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030. While PPD developed the project and secured funding for reducing Maternal Mortality in its member states, Hon. Minister H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque MP has been instrumental in bringing the project to be implemented first in Bangladesh. The Project will initially be implemented in six Upazilas of Gazipur and Manikganj Districts, the successful experiences of which will later be spread all over Bangladesh. Subsequently, Bangladesh’s successful experiences and lessons learned will also be replicated in other PPD member states in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The project will offer extensive exchange of experiences and expertise between Bangladesh and China and an Expert Group has already been constituted from both the countries to provide technical oversight to the project implementation. This is a concrete example of South-South Cooperation between two friendly developing countries. At the end of the brief ceremony, Hon. Minister H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque MP and PPD Executive Director Mr. Adnene Ben Haj Aissa will concurrently sign a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Project implementation.