Maternal mortality: What if Africa didn’t care?

The ordinary African woman, generally closer to death than to life whenever performing her natural duty of giving life, will be hoping for tangible results from the deliberations of the 15th African Union Summit (19-27 July 2010), convened in Kampala under the lovely theme, “Maternal, infant and child health and development in Africa”.

The choice of this theme is a good step in the AU’s Campaign on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA), launched in 2009 under the key message, “Africa Cares: No woman should die while giving life”.

Health is not among the 2009/10 budget winners

The health sector has been named among the winners of the 2009/10 budget for claiming the “third largest” share of planned expenditure (11%), after works and transport (17%) and education (16%), (“Roads, education and health top budget spending”, The New Vision, Friday, June 12, 2009).

By determining “winners” and “losers” on the basis of only changes in taxes and budget share, this analysis ignores the importance of examining the priorities, policy pronouncements, new allocations, addressed needs, and percentage increases.