General
Source: New Vision
THE inter-Parliamentary Union has urged member states to ensure free access to vaccines and medicines to protect women and children from diseases.
The call is contained in a resolution passed at the end of the IPU-one week assembly held in Kampala from March 31 to April 5.
During their deliberations, the delegates who included speakers and MPs were concerned by the huge funding gap to ensure universal access to reproductive health, the high maternal and un acceptable infant mortality rates world-wide, and the ineffective and poorly resourced health systems.
Other concerns raised included low contraceptive prevalence rates, the many unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and the high number of new HIV infections among young people.
They noted that Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 aims at reducing the under-five child mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015 while MDG 5 aims at reducing the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters between the same period.
Statistics show that in 2010, an estimated 7.6million children died before reaching their fifth birthday, with 41% dying in their first month. Also over 170million children under five wild-wide are affected by stunting.
An estimated 358,000 women world-wide died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, with 99% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Statistics also show that unsafe abortions account for 13% of the total maternal deaths.
"The lack of access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and supplies, in particular family planning services, is a major contributing factor to maternal mortality," the delegates said.
"Most maternal and child deaths are preventable and that many are the result of conditions that may be avoided through immunisation or treated by well-known and cost-effective interventions."
They affirmed commitment to upholding the various conventions and declarations on issues of human rights, women and children ratified by their respective countries and urged countries that had not do so to take action.
The delegates urged parliaments to pass laws explicitly criminalising all forms of violence against women and girls.
They also called upon parliaments to use their oversight and accountability tools at their disposal throughout the budgetary process, as well as innovative financing approaches, to ensure that adequate domestic resources are allocated for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.