Zim pledges to halve maternal mortality rate

ZIMBABWE has pledged to cut by half its maternal mortality from 651 to 325 per 100 000 live births by 2030.

This commitment was revealed at the ongoing International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) Summit here by the chief director responsible for Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Robert Mudyiradima.

He said Zimbabwe will develop a comprehensive national sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) package and integrate it into the national universal health coverage, policies and programmes.

Dr Mudyiradima read out the goals on behalf of Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo.

Among other commitments, Zimbabwe will allocate at least 15 percent of the national Budget to health, with specific allocation to sexual reproductive health rights and family planning by 2030.

The country plans to improve allocations from the HIV and airtime levies to SRHR and family planning by at least five percent.

Another critical target was the establishment and implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

“Zimbabwe also commits to improve youth involvement across all sectors through the enactment of the national youth act and its national youth commission,” said Dr Mudyiradima.

“We will also promote health in schoolchildren through implementation of the Zimbabwe school health policy and support access to contraception for young people to remove high teen pregnancies by 2030.”

Zimbabwe seeks to build and strengthen structures for preparedness and responses to emergencies and support strengthening of the Civil Protection Unit to coordinate humanitarian actors to prioritise prevention of sexual exploitation and sexual gender violence in humanitarian situations.

Speaking to The Herald, Dr Mudyiradima said the commitments were achievable.

“We are not just starting with commitments to the ICPD, we have the Maputo Protocol and SADC initiatives that have been working on this,” he said.