Dakar, 25 October -- The second meeting of the WHO African Reproductive Health Task Force ended Friday in Dakar, Senegal, with the adoption of recommendations aimed at scaling up interventions designed to improve reproductive health indicators in the African Region.

The five-day meeting recommended that the WHO Regional Office for Africa should, among others:

• work with governments and professional associations to accelerate the availability of skilled attendants at birth through the promotion of middle-level cadres, the integration of midwifery skills into the curricula of existing cadres, and the creation of enabling environments through appropriate national policies and legal frameworks for delegation of authority;
• in collaboration with partners, convene a regional consultation to define the mix of interventions needed for Traditional Birth Attendants, communities, and the formal health system to have an impact on the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity; a consensus statement should be prepared as an advisory to Member States;
• work with NGOs, professional associations and governments to promote holistic community approaches as well as the development and enforcement of regulations to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation in Africa;
• convene a meeting with all interested partners to develop a common road map to accelerate the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals related to maternal and newborn health;
• develop dissemination strategies to ensure the understanding, adaptation, and use of best practices and tools in selected priority areas;
• organize a partners' meeting to share the Implementation Framework for the Integration of PMTCT into Existing Reproductive Health Services and reach a consensus on a coordinated way forward on interventions at country levels;
• together with other development partners, pro-actively work with governments to increase budget allocations for priority reproductive health interventions, including the integration of reproductive health into Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Sector-Wide Approaches, and programmes of Highly Indebted Poor Countries;
• join with the African Union, other United Nations agencies and partners to establish an annual Maternal and Newborn Health week, to mobilize communities, civil society, governments, the private sector, etc., for maternal and newborn health interventions;
• facilitate the scaling up of integrated adolescent health programmes, such as the Alliance of Parents Adolescents and Communities (APADOC) approach, and the development of approaches that seek opportunities to incorporate adolescent health into other programs;
• with the support of Task Force members, actively establish, strengthen and coordinate collaborating centers for Reproductive Health Research and Training in Africa, and provide sufficient support to ensure their sustainability;
• work with governments to set up mechanisms to monitor the implementation of ratified international agreements /conventions related to improving reproductive health;
• accelerate the training of African professionals in the management of obstetric fistula, through north-south and south-south collaboration;
• support countries to integrate into country Safe Motherhood National Plans an approach to scale up birth preparedness at household and community levels, using the WHO/AFRO Framework for the Promotion and Implementation of Community-based Interventions for Maternal and Newborn Health, and drawing on best practices in this area, and
• support country implementation of the WHO/AFRO Framework for repositioning Family Planning, using birth spacing perspectives, lessons learnt from experience, and cost-benefit models to ensure that governments and partners allocate adequate resources to Family Planning programmes at country level.

For further information,

Media contacts: 
Samuel T. Ajibola Khalifa, Mbengue
Tel: + 47 241 39378 + 221 8 23 02 70
Mobile - 58 61 091
Email: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int) ; mbengueh [at] oms.sn (mbengueh[at]oms[dot]sn)

Technical contact: 
Dr Doyin Oluwole 
Director, Division of Family and Reproductive Health 
Tel: +47 241 39478
Email: regafro [at] afro.who.int (regafro[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)