Harare, 17 February 2004 -- A greater involvement of men in caring for their spouses during pregnancy, basic education, improved health systems and the use of skilled birth attendants are key to reducing maternal and newborn mortality in Africa.

This was stated by Zimbabwe's Secretary for Health and Child Welfare, Dr Elizabeth Xaba, at the opening in Harare,on Monday, of a regional meeting convened to design a road map to reduce maternal. The Millennium Development Goals call for a 75% reduction in maternal mortality by in the African Region within the next decade.

Dr Xaba said that other factors crucial to attaining the goal included greater empowerment of women, allocation of adequate human and financial resources to the health sector, and greater availability of user-friendly information to improve individual, family and community knowledge of danger signs during pregnancy and labour.

She said that maternal deaths due to pregnancy-related complications were preventable, noting that in her country the maternal mortality ratio had increased from 253 per 100,000 live births in 1999 to 695 per 100,000 live births in 1999.

"I urge you to build the roadmap (based) on "best practices" known to health professionals, and to avoid re-inventing new ideas which might confuse the already burdened cadre," she told the about 30 health experts and professionals attending the three-day meeting.

In his remarks, the WHO Representative in Zimbabwe Dr. E.K. Njelesani stated that the high and rising maternal and neonatal mortality rates in Africa made the development of a roadmap to arrest the situation an imperative necessity. …/1

Dr Njelesani, who was speaking on behalf of the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim .M Samba, said: "We have a difficult task ahead of us. The women of Africa are calling on us, the health experts, to give them a better life and, above all, to save their lives and those of their newborn children. We cannot fail them."

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