15 May 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's infant, under-five and maternal mortality rates have all declined in recent years, but still remain alarmingly high.
Launching the "Road Map" on how to reduce these mortality rates on Wednesday, the national director of health promotion, Mouzinho Saide, told reporters that, between 1997 and 2003, the under-five mortality rate had fallen by 18 per cent, from 219 to 178 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Over the same period, infant mortality (deaths within the first year of life) fell by 15 per cent, from 147 to 125 per 1,000 live births. Saide put the current maternal mortality rate at 408 per 100,000 live births.
The Road Map is intended to speed up Mozambique's efforts to achieve the two Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in this area. They are to reduce under-five mortality by two thirds and maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015.
Saide said that efforts are being made to reduce the neonatal mortality rate (the number of children who die in the first 28 days of life) from 48 per 1,000 live births (the 2003 figure) to 36 in 2010 and to 30 by 2015.
As for maternal mortality, the target is to bring the rate down to 350 per 100,000 live births by 2010 and to 250 by 2015.
To achieve these goals the government promises to strengthen the capacity of individuals, households and communities to improve mother and child health, and will attempt to guarantee that all women have access to properly qualified medical care during pregnancy, childbirth, and the neo-natal and post-natal periods.
Health Minister Ivo Garrido, who chaired the launch ceremony, declared that infant mortality remains an emergency in Africa. He recalled that early this year President Armando Guebuza launched a presidential initiative on mother and child care, as part of the government's drive to bring down the mortality rates.
Garrido stressed that the activities planned in the Road Map should be implemented in well-defined phases, with a realistic timetable, and a good system to monitor and evaluate the results.
The road Map enjoys the support of UN agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WH), and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.
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