Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces New Maternal, Newborn and Children Health Initiatives

January 26, 2011

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND ― Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced support for new development projects that will save the lives and improve the health of mothers and children in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

“Canada was the catalyst in 2010 for the renewed global effort to save the lives of mothers, children and newborns in developing countries,” said Prime Minister Harper.  “The support being announced today will help Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Mozambique address the urgent and long-term health needs of these vulnerable groups.” 

In Ethiopia, Canada will provide support to improve the nutrition and health of three million pregnant and nursing women and their children.  In Mozambique, Canada will help strengthen the national health system to deliver health services to mothers and children, provide lifesaving HIV treatment to 38,000 children, treat 94,000 pregnant women to prevent new HIV infections and immunize 2.8 million children under five against measles.  In Bangladesh, Canadian funding will strengthen maternal and neonatal health services by purchasing essential drugs and equipment, recruiting and training health care professionals — including 2,700 new skilled community birth attendants — upgrading existing treatment centres, and helping purchase enough oral polio vaccine for 250,000 children annually.

The support announced today is part of Canada meeting the 5-year, $2.85-billion commitment that it made at the 2010 G-8 Summit under the Muskoka Initiative.  Accountability is a key component of all the new initiatives.

The Prime Minister made the announcement at the close of the first meeting of the United Nations Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, held today in Geneva.  Prime Minister Harper and Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania, are the co-chairs of the Commission.

 “Today, members of the Commission emerged from our first meeting united in our determination to ensure that global funding for maternal and children’s health in developing countries is spent where needed most and properly accounted for,” said Prime Minister Harper.  “We all agree that success depends on simple and clear interventions that yield results.”   
 

Backgrounder

NEW MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILDREN HEALTH INITIATIVES 
At the G-8 Summit in Muskoka in June 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada’s commitment of $2.85 billion over five years to help save the lives of mothers, children and newborns in developing countries.  This includes $1.1 billion in new funding for the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, in addition to maintaining current funding levels of $1.75 billion for similar initiatives over five years through the Canadian International Development Agency.  Since the G-8 Summit, Canada and its global partners have committed more than US$7.3 billion to the Muskoka Initiative.
 
Canada’s contribution to the Muskoka Initiative supports comprehensive and integrated approaches in developing countries that provide necessary health services for mothers and children, particularly to people at the local level.  This support will enable Canada to pursue three important mutually reinforcing objectives:

• strengthening health systems
• addressing diseases and illnesses
• improving nutrition 

On January 26, 2011, the Harper Government announced the following new initiatives in Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Bangladesh that demonstrate early delivery on Canada’s commitment to the G-8 Muskoka Initiative:


Ethiopia
Improve food security for mothers and children through community based nutrition. Canada’s contribution will help UNICEF improve the nutrition and health of three million pregnant and nursing women and their children in Ethiopia.  Canada’s funding will help train more than 4,000 community health workers to provide lifesaving treatment for malnourished children and supplements that are essential to ensure the health of children and mothers, such as Vitamin A and iron.  This project will also improve health and nutrition in the long term by helping mothers provide their children with the right foods at the right time and by ensuring access to clean water for 125,000 people. ($50 million over five years).

Mozambique
Strengthen the national health system in Mozambique.  Canada’s contribution will help the Mozambique Ministry of Health strengthen the national health system to better deliver integrated health services to mothers and children where they live.  It will improve access to local health centres and ensure these centres are adequately equipped, resourced and staffed by trained health workers.  It will improve access for mothers and children to comprehensive and integrated health services along the continuum of care, from pre-pregnancy, through pregnancy and childbirth, to the early days and years of life. Canadian support will also deliver lifesaving HIV treatment to 38,000 young children and treat 94,000 pregnant women to prevent new HIV infections.  Canadian funds will also be used to construct and upgrade health centres, ensure sufficient supplies of essential medicines, train health care workers for programs to prevent and treat infectious diseases and improve nutrition. ($125 million over five years).

Launch a nationwide measles vaccination campaign in Mozambique. This project will enable the Mozambique Ministry of Health and UNICEF to undertake a nationwide public health campaign targeting over three million children under the age of five in 2011.  The national campaign will provide the measles vaccine to 2.8 million children, vitamin A to 3.7 million children and deworming tablets to 3.2 million children.  The campaign includes a public health outreach effort to deliver a package of high-impact, low-cost maternal and child survival interventions during the National Mother and Child Health Week in April, 2011. ($3.1 million in 2011).
 

Bangladesh
Strengthen maternal and neonatal health services (Joint Government of Bangladesh-United Nations Maternal and Neonatal Health project).  Canada will save lives and strengthen maternal and neonatal health services in Bangladesh by purchasing essential drugs and equipment, recruiting and training health care professionals, upgrading existing treatment centres and piloting innovative ways for delivering services.  Over the next five years, the proportion of women receiving postnatal care is expected to increase from 18.9 per cent to 28.1 per cent, while the proportion of women delivering children with the support of skilled health care workers is anticipated to increase from 19.9 per cent to 25.7 per cent. The United Nations Population Fund is the development partner implementing the project. ($20 million over five years).
 
Improve maternal, newborn and child health services (Human Resources for Health project).  Canada will improve maternal newborn and child health in Bangladesh by increasing the number of nurses, skilled birth attendants and midwives, and improving the quality of nurse midwifery education and services. The project will train more than 2,700 health care workers as skilled community birth attendants and upgrade 46 public sector nursing institutes, which train 1,800 nurse midwives annually. ($19.7 million over five years).
 
Strengthen immunization capacity (Immunization Strengthening Project)
Canada will help UNICEF acquire polio and measles vaccine and strengthen Bangladesh’s immunization program by improving vaccine storage and training health workers.  The project will also purchase enough oral polio vaccine for 250,000 children annually. ($12 million over two years).                                                                                                                                                                                                            
Strengthen community health and outreach services for women and children (Maternal and Reproductive Health project).  The project will help to establish two community-based health care centres and outreach facilities for women and their children in Bangladesh, as well as train 100 traditional birth attendants.  The project will also mobilize 30 adolescent groups, 30 health watch committees, and 100 mothers' clubs to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS.  Toronto-based International Development and Relief Foundation is the Canadian partner implementing the project. ($498,000 over three years).