Maternal Health at the World Health Assembly

Here at the MHTF we’re encouraged that maternal health featured so prominently in the opening addresses of the World Health Assembly in Geneva yesterday. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon eloquently summed it up by saying, “In the 21st century, no woman should have to give her life to give life.” We wholeheartedly agree.

And we were delighted to hear Sarah Brown, a welcome new champion of maternal health, recognize the MHTF in her speech as a partner in her impressive Maternal Mortality Campaign strategy. Many of the members of the MHTF already participate in and support the Maternal Mortality Campaign; we will continue to call on the MHTF to provide the evidence and insights needed to make the case to policy-makers and opinion leaders everywhere that maternal health must become a priority on the health and development agenda.

The speeches from yesterday’s opening sessions can be found here. I encourage you to read them closely – you’ll see that maternal health is now front and center on the global health policy stage which means that our collective work is more important than ever.

Best wishes,

Ann