Nigeria: Accountability Now - a Summit to Advance Newborn and Maternal Health in Nigeria

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Editor: The National Summit on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) will take place in Abuja on February 16-18. The inaugural Summit will address accountability in healthcare delivery for women, newborns, and other vulnerable groups.

By now it is no secret that Nigeria's maternal and child health indicators, while improving, are still at very tragic levels. The numbers of children that die in childhood and mothers that die during childbirth in Nigeria has remained stubbornly high. Interventions that have worked in other countries have not worked as well in Nigeria. While some vertical intervention programmes have shown some impact, broad indicators have not changed significantly. UNICEF says that Nigeria is the second largest contributor to under-five and maternal mortality in the world. Surely, this cannot be accepted as "normal". We simply cannot sit back and accept that our mothers and children will die of conditions no one else is dying of. It is time to step back and ask the question; why? Why are are so many women are still dying while pregnant and during labour; why are newborns and children dying from easily preventable conditions despite all the resources that have been thrown at the problem.

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