"No Woman Should Die While Giving Birth". A Discussion on the Progress Made and Limitations on Achieving the MDG5 in Namibia

Abstract or Introduction

The fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) calls for improving maternal health and focuses on two specific objectives: the reduction of global maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by two third and the universal access to reproductive health by the year 2015 (United Nations, 2013).

Recent data shows that globally the Maternal Mortality Ratio has seen a significant decrease from 400 per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 260 per 100,000 live births in 2008 (Zere et al, 2011). Despite this world progress, some 300,000 women died in 2013 from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth whereby 62% of the deaths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations, 2014).

Access to a comprehensive package of reproductive health services has seen an improvement with 83% of pregnant women attended by a skilled health worker at least once during their pregnancy in 2012 compare to 65% in 1990 (United Nations, 2014).

According to the United Nations (2014), there remain extreme differences in maternal mortality among countries with almost one third of global deaths concentrated in India (17%) and Nigeria (14%); with Sierra Leone being the Country with the highest MMR (1100 per 100,000 live births) while Belarus has the lowest (1 per 100,000 live births).

Namibia is one of the affected sub-Saharan countries. It is estimated that, everyday a woman dies in Namibia due to complications related to either pregnancy or childbirth. The Maternal Mortality ratio has increased from 225 per 100,000 live births in 1992 to 271 per 100,000 live births in 2000 and 449 per 100,000 live births in 2007/2008 (WHO, 2009).
This data has put the Country on a balance scale to initiate and develop policies and programs for the acceleration of the reduction of MMR against set targets and reverse the trends to achieve 75% reduction in accordance with the MDG5 target.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze policies, strategies and programs that were developed in Namibia to meet the global and country targets for the attainment of the MDG5.Also to evaluate the progress made ,discuss challenges and identify way forwards for local and global response.

This essay will review the Millennium Development Goals agenda, the Namibian Country health status in the context of MDG 5 and the policies, strategies and programs developed to mitigate Maternal Mortality.