By: Daniel Yao Akpabli | ignewss — NEW YORK, USA
President John Dramani Mahama has drawn attention to the persistent burden of maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa, saying Ghana’s maternal mortality rate remains three times above the Sustainable Development Goal target.
Addressing a high-level Accra Reset gathering in New York, President Mahama said the scale of maternal deaths on the continent required urgent action and a fundamental rethink of how health systems are financed and managed.
“Globally, nearly seven out of ten maternal deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “And my own country, Ghana, is still three times above the recommended SDG target. This is unacceptable.”
President Mahama noted that the maternal health challenge was one of the reasons his government was linking Ghana’s domestic development agenda to the broader objectives of the Accra Reset, an initiative he has championed to promote greater resilience and local capacity in health and development.
The Presidency has previously described the initiative as an effort to rethink global governance, financing and partnerships for health and development.
The President argued that strengthening Ghana’s health sector should go beyond constructing hospitals and relying on external partners for essential medical supplies.
He said the country needed to develop local industrial capacity, including encouraging domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce essential medicines locally, supported by state purchasing and access to regional markets.
According to him, the same principle should guide the Accra Reset at the international level, arguing that countries in the Global South needed greater control over the systems and resources underpinning their development, adding that this should be accompanied by stronger domestic accountability, sound financial management, improved coordination and institutions capable of delivering measurable results.
The President said maternal and child health would serve as the first major test of the Accra Reset’s proposed financial and governance architecture.
He referred to the Mother Africa initiative, championed by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan and the Business United for Mothers, Babies and Youth (BUMBY) campaign as efforts intended to bring government policy and corporate responsibility together around maternal and child health.
President Mahama also called for greater collaboration between African governments, international institutions, philanthropies, businesses and research organisations to strengthen health systems and develop sustainable solutions. He said partnerships should support local manufacturing, research, regulation and reliable distribution rather than leaving countries dependent on short-term external programmes.
The President’s remarks come as global health agencies continue to monitor progress towards the 2030 maternal mortality target. WHO’s latest monitoring framework says maternal mortality remains a central global health priority, with substantial reductions required to meet the SDG commitment.
He therefore announced that Ghana would seek to carry the Accra Reset into Africa’s wider policy discussions when the country assumes the chairmanship of the African Union (AU) in 2027.
He further called for a new approach to global health cooperation in which responsibility is matched with authority and countries have the capacity to build and sustain systems capable of protecting mothers and children.
The SDG 3.1 target calls for the global maternal mortality ratio to be reduced to fewer than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies timely access to quality care during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period as critical to preventing maternal deaths.
SOURCE: www.ignewss.com