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The Daily Star-WRA Roundtable

Safe motherhood left in the lurch

Speakers lament poor budgetary allocation for maternal healthcare

Staff Correspondent
Budgetary allocation for maternal healthcare is dismally low when over 7,000 mothers on average die every year from pregnancy and childbirth-related
complications in the country.
This information was presented by speakers at a discussion jointly organised by White Ribbon Alliance (WRA), a global forum of organisations and individuals
for safe motherhood, and The Daily Star on the newspaper's office premises in the capital yesterday.
Noted economist Prof Abul Barakat presented key findings of a study on fund allocations for maternal healthcare conducted by Human Development Research Centre (HDRC).
"We are not spending enough to save our mothers," ProfBarakatwarned.
Maternal healthcare services should be treated as basic public entitlement in the Constitution, he said, adding, the national budget is not prepared in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
The World Health Organization defines maternal healthcare as a quality service provided to a woman during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery period.
The HDRC study reveals four million women got some or other maternal healthcare, whereas 5.4 million didn't get any in 2009.
According to the estimate of the study, only Tk 175 crore was allocated for maternal healthcare in2009-10 fiscal.
The allocation is only 2.5 percent of the total budget of
the health and family welfare ministry and only 0.15 percent of the national budget, said Prof Barakat, adding, a little more than half of this allocation was spent directly for maternal healthcare services.
In 2009, the target as per the MDG was to help 1.5 million pregnant women give birth attended by skilled medical workers, he said, but only half of it could be achieved.
Prof Barakat, chief adviser to HDRC, said Tk 411 crore is required to provide maternal healthcare in the present situation, while Tk 820 crore is needed to ensure an improved service in an ideal situation.
The government has to estimate exactly how much fund is allocated for maternal healthcare and what is required to increase allocation to achieve the MDG, he added.
He said a separate operational plan for maternal healthcare is vital in the five-year programme on Health, Population and Nutrition.
Terming the government's nutrition programme a failure, he said Tk 1,478 crore was allocated for family planning programme in
2009-10 fiscal, but none of the programmes is directly related to maternal health.
Prof Tahera Ahmed of North South University said almost all of the maternal deaths, most of which occur to adolescent mothers, are preventable by awareness and trained health workers.
The deaths occur due to delay in decision-making at family level, transporting the pregnant mother to a health service facility, and providing quality care, she observed.
Md Abdullah, a retired joint secretary and presently senior consultant to HDRC, said efficiency and transparency of the health ministry is vital for spending increased allocation for maternal healthcare.
Three lawmakers --Shammi Akhter, Nazma Akhter and Golam Mowla Roni — said they would raise the issue in parliament and help ensure the service at their respective constituency.
Dr Farhana Ahmed, national coordinator ofWRA, and Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, also spoke, while Dr Abu Jamil Faisel, country representative of Engender Health, moderated the open discussion.