Representatives from LSTM’s Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health (CMNH) are in attendance at a high profile consultative meeting in Kenya this week, looking at how the attainment of the fifth of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can be accelerated in country.
CMNH’s Deputy Director, Dr Charles Ameh, will give a presentation to delegates about the Making it Happen programme. The programme, which is working to reduce newborn mortality and morbidity in eleven countries in Africa and Asia, was recently extended throughout Kenya with the help of a £9 million award from the Department of International Development (DFID).
The United Nations MDGs are eight goals that all 191 UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve by the end of 2015. MDG 5 is about improving maternal health by reducing the maternal mortality rate and achieving universal access to reproductive health.
The meeting, which has been taking place in Nairobi is organised byUNFPA, WorldBank, Kenya Red-Cross and Ministry of Health Kenya, it was attended by the first lady of Kenya, Margaret Kenyatta who leads the Beyond Zero Campaign, Cabinet Minister for Health, County Governor and Ministers for health, Maternal health development partners, Donors such as DFID, USAID, DANIDA, and JICA.
The two day meeting will focus on the 15 counties with the highest burden of maternal deaths in Kenya. It will see county government executives working with maternal health specialists to look at some of the evidence-based high impact interventions that can be implemented, sharing best practice and generating renewed commitments from donors, implementation partners and county executives, in order to accelerate the reduction of maternal mortality on a county level.
Dr Ameh said: “The reason that Making it Happen has been extended in Kenya is because it has been successful, which is due to the excellent relationship that CMNH has been able to develop with the Kenyan Ministry of Health at a national and county level. I was delighted to be invited to present the programme at this event and highlight the work that we have been carrying out in Kenya since 2009.”