PM pledges $203M for women, children’s health
Focus of UN program to give aid to poor and developing countries
UNITED NATIONS — Canada will contribute $203 million as part of an ongoing global commitment to improve the health of women, newborns and young children in poor and developing countries, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Wednesday at the United Nations.
Harper called the high mortality of mothers and their young children in poorer countries “one of the world’s great tragedies” that denies not only life, but talent.
“But there is an even greater tragedy,” he said. “The deaths of these women and children — victims, mostly, of disease, poor nutrition and inadequate care — are often entirely preventable.”
Canada’s contribution is part of its support of a United Nations program called Every Woman Every Child, which is a global strategy for improving the health of women and children.
The global commitment began at the G8 Muskoka Summit in Ontario in 2010, where members pledged $7 billion to the initiative by 2015. The program gained UN support.
Canada has been among the largest contributors, pledging $1.1 billion. Most of Canada’s commitment has already been allocated and the final $203 million will be spent by 2015.
Harper made his announcement during a panel discussion on the unfinished agenda of the millennium development goals at the UN.
Panellists noted that while great strides have been made, the goal of 90-per-cent improvement probably won’t be met by the deadline at the end of 2015.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete noted, however, that there have been substantial gains in educating doctors, nurses and midwives in his country, where the numbers have risen from fewer than 1,000 to more than 8,000.
“We used to produce only 250 doctors,” he said. “This year we have reached over 600 doctors per annum, and we are building another facility where we will be able to take 12,000 students.”
Harper urged the program’s supporters to “stay the course.”