With the prize of hosting the 126th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Related Meetings safely secured, Uganda embarked on ensuring that one of its most bothering domestic health issues is discussed at the event.
When delegates converge in Kampala for the conference under the theme: Parliaments and People: Bridging the Gap, between March 31 - April 5, 2012, one of the topics for discussion will be Access to health as a basic right: The role of parliaments in addressing key challenges to securing the health of women and children.
Uganda, together with Canada and India, will co-rapporteur during the meeting by the Third Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights. Uganda lobbied delegates at the 124th IPU Assembly held in Panama City to have this issue adopted and included on the agenda for this upcoming conference. Not many other local health issues would have surpassed that of maternal health in importance, considering Uganda's worrying figures of maternal and neonatal deaths, with 435 deaths per 100,000 live births!
Reports show that maternal deaths are concentrated in the developing world, but are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Sixteen women die each day in Uganda while giving birth, largely due to preventable causes such as haemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortions, obstructed labour, hypertensive disorders and related causes. Parliament of Uganda has already taken steps in trying to address this issue, approving a number of motions geared towards improving the conditions of childbirth and the health of mothers and children.
In a recent motion, Parliament recognised that "the loss of a mother shatters a family and threatens the well-being of the surviving children and the husband... and resolved to task government through the ministry of Health to strictly enforce maternal death audits and take action on established causes."
Parliament also asked government to develop a policy of compensation to the families of all women who die as a result of maternal related causes while in government facilities. In addition, Parliament urged government to implement its commitment of allocating 15% of the total national budget, to the health sector as per the Abuja Declaration. Only recently, Parliament of Uganda approved a $56 million government loan from the African Development Bank and the Nigeria Trust Fund intended to finance the improvement of health service delivery at Mulago hospital and for the construction of two referral health facilities in Makindye and Kawempe divisions of Kampala.
But before this, in 2006, a motion moved by Hon Sylvia Ssinabulya urged government to show more commitment to improving maternal health by taking steps to make maternal health a priority at all levels, through establishing a maternal mortality control programme, making maternal deaths a notifiable condition by law and ensuring availability of transfusion blood by increasing the number of blood banks.
And in 2010, Parliament approved a $130 million government loan from the World Bank intended for financing the Health Systems Strengthening Project - where $30 million specifically targeted the improvement of access to and quality of maternal health, newborn care and family planning services. Another component of the loan, amounting to $85 million, was to improve infrastructure of existing health facilities, particularly providing minimum quality standards of healthcare services, especially maternal and child care.
The Speaker of Parliament and host of the 126th IPU Assembly, Rebecca Kadaga, is an ardent advocate of maternal health. On February 24, 2012, she presided over a function at which the Government of Uganda signed a letter of intent with the US Government, which pledged to provide $400 million towards the improvement of health services, particularly the prevention of maternal mortality.
At the function, the Speaker said: "Parliament of Uganda recognises the importance of addressing maternal and neonatal health challenges, because mortality rates of both mother and neonates [from preventable causes of death] are still high in Uganda."
The author is Senior Information Officer, Parliament of Uganda, and also member of the Media and Publicity Committee of the 126th IPU Assembly and Related Meetings.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201203221017.html
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