Day: February 23, 2023

A new report by four leading United Nations agencies and the World Bank estimates every two minutes, one woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth, mostly from preventable causes.

The report, “Trends in maternal mortality 2000 to 2020,” was produced by WHO, UNICEF, and the UNFPA, along with the World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division.

Health officials say the data presented in the report should be a wakeup call for world leaders to take action to end maternal deaths by investing in health care systems and closing the widening social and economic inequities that contribute to these deaths.

“While pregnancy should be a time of immense hope and a positive experience for all women, it is tragically still a shockingly dangerous experience for millions around the world,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director-general.

“These new statistics reveal the urgent need to ensure every woman and girl has access to critical health services before, during and after childbirth,” he said, “And that they can fully exercise their reproductive rights.”

The report finds an estimated 287,000 women around the world died from a maternal cause in 2020. That is equivalent to 800 deaths a day, or one death every two minutes.

“These numbers show persistent inequities between countries which are undermining women’s rights.,” said Anshu Banerjee, assistant director general for universal health coverage at WHO.

“There is over a hundred-fold risk of dying depending on where a woman delivers her baby, particularly in low-income countries compared to high income countries,” he said.

The statistics bear this out. While some significant progress in reducing maternal deaths was made between 2000 and 2015, the report notes this progress has largely stalled, and in some cases been reversed.

For example, between 2016 and 2020, it says the maternal mortality rate increased in Europe, Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

While the number of deaths has gone up, the report says the regions have among the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world.

During this same period, the report says two regions, Australia and New Zealand, and Central and Southern Asia, reduced maternal deaths significantly. The picture is quite different in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rate of maternal mortality, accounting for 70 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.

Jenny Cresswell, an epidemiologist at WHO and author of the report, said the maternal mortality ratio per 100,000 live births in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 is estimated to be 545 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.

“This number is 136 times bigger than MMR (maternal mortality ratio) in Australia and New Zealand, the lowest region,” Cresswell said.

She adds, “A 15-year-old girl in Chad in 2020 has a one in 15 chance of dying from a maternal cause during her lifetime, and that is 4,000 times greater than the probability in Belarus.”

In 2020, Belarus had one MMR per 100,000 live births compared to Chad, which had 1,063 MMRs per 100,000 live births.

Leading causes

The leading causes of maternal deaths include severe bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections, complications from unsafe abortions, and underlying conditions such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Banerjee said nearly all these maternal deaths are preventable.

“Nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, which is highlighting the lack of access of some 270 million women globally to modern family planning methods —meaning they are unable to choose how and when to plan their families,” he says.” Many lack access to safe abortion, which increases risk of complications, including deaths associated with unsafe procedures,” said Banerjee.

Natalia Kanem, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, said it is unacceptable that so many women continue to die needlessly during pregnancy and childbirth.

She said, “We can and must do better by urgently investing in family planning and filling the global shortage of 900,000 midwives so that every woman can get the lifesaving care she needs.

“We have the tools, knowledge, and resources to end preventable maternal deaths,” she said. “What we need now is the political will.”

Source: Voice of America

Nigeria’s electoral commission says the country is ready for Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections despite scattered violence in the run-up to the polls.

Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told journalists Thursday that the commission had begun dispatching sensitive materials to Nigerian states, and that it had been working with the nation’s security forces to provide maximum safety for staff and election materials.

“They have assured us of their preparedness to adequately secure the election,” he said. “This is very important as it will assure voters of their safety during elections, which is cardinal to voter turnout.”

Nigeria is also dealing with shortages of cash and fuel, and experts say that changes the dynamics of the polls.

“We’ve also had to consult with Nigerian National Petroleum Limited on the fuel situation,” Yakubu said. “Likewise, the Central Bank of Nigeria will provide us with the necessary small amount of cash that we require from our budget to make payment for some critical service providers.”

This is the most contested election in history of Nigeria’s democracy with 18 candidates running to be president.

Nigeria has been struggling to stem widespread violence and kidnappings perpetrated by armed gangs. Security problems have gotten worse in the run-up to the polls, with several attacks and arson recorded on INEC offices. Officials said they had recorded over 50 attacks in all since the last elections in 2019.

Police said a senatorial candidate was killed early Thursday by gunmen in southeast Enugu state on his way from a campaign event.

Peace agreement

This week, the government’s National Peace Committee hosted an event where candidates signed a peace accord. Abduslsalami Abubakar, former head of state and chairman of the NPC, spoke during the event.

“Issues of major concerns that have the potential to negatively impact on the integrity are emerging,” he said. “One of such issues is the spread of fake news, and misinformation continues to pose a significant threat to the 2023 general elections.”

President Muhammadu Buhari spoke at the peace signing ceremony in Abuja.

“I am aware of the deep concerns about the conduct of the 2023 general elections and outcomes they may throw up,” he said. “However, since my assumption of office we have worked so hard to ensure that we pass on a legacy of free, fair, credible, safe and peaceful elections.”

The INEC said about 150,000 election observers were already in Nigeria, including delegates from the African Union, European Union and the U.S.

Campaigning and the final push for votes was set to end Thursday.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. first lady Jill Biden was visibly moved during a visit to an informal settlement near Namibia’s capital Thursday, where she spent the better part of an hour listening to young beneficiaries of U.S.-funded programs describe their challenges and triumphs in a nation that ranks as one of the world’s most unequal societies.

As a sudden afternoon storm beat down on the metal roofs of the hastily constructed Katutura neighborhood, Biden listened intently as teens and young adults described their work with the local Hope Initiatives program, which receives some U.S. grant money.

VOA asked her if she would take these stories back and lobby for an extension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, which, for two decades, has provided crucial support for nations struggling with the burden of HIV and AIDS.

“I don’t know whether I’ll be lobbying Congress, but certainly I will be taking it back and we’ll see where it goes, I’ll work with my staff and see where we’ll take it,” she responded. “I mean – how many lives it has saved and how many lives it will continue to save, it’s what, 20 years now I think? Yeah, 20 years. So it’s an amazing program.”

Biden encouraged an orphan who failed grade 11 because she had a baby, saying, “You’ll get there. You’ll do it because you have to. Once you have a baby, you know, you have to take care of that baby, that’s your responsibility right? You’ll get there. You’ll do it. Because the moms are the tigers, we fight for our kids, right?”

Celebrates Namibia’s ‘strong democracy’

Motherhood and sisterhood have been themes of Biden’s first visit to the continent as first lady, which she launched in the Southwest African nation of Namibia on Wednesday.

She also praised female leadership, answering a reporter’s question about whether the U.S. is ready for a female president, saying “It’s always time to have a female president, no matter what country you’re in.”

Earlier in the day, Biden praised Namibia’s vibrant democracy at a pomp-filled, wine-laden, dignitary-heavy state luncheon with Namibia’s first lady, Monica Geingos, and her husband, President Hage Geingob.

“I’m proud to be standing here standing with a strong democracy,” Biden said. “And as Monica said yesterday, a young democracy working together. As Joe said at the summit, African voices, African Leadership, and African innovation are all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges and realizing the vision we all share is a world that is free.”

Thursday also happens to be the 30th anniversary of the first sitting of Namibia’s first post-independence upper house of parliament.

Geingos, a Namibian entrepreneur and lawyer who is the president’s third wife, said she invited Biden to visit after meeting at December’s U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

“Of course, there will always be differences,” she said. “But what is important is what the Biden presidency represents. And that is decency, democracy, and diplomacy. This luncheon is to celebrate connection, and possibility.”

On Friday, Biden plans to speak to university students about youth empowerment.

One such youth, the junior mayor of Windhoek, Moses Fillpus, thanked Biden for visiting and praised American ideals.

“Congratulate me for not fainting,” quipped the 17-year-old in front of the room filled with some 200 people from the highest echelons of Namibian society, politics and diplomacy.

“For me, as a young African child growing up, I just consumed American media to the point where I even knew about it more than my own,” he continued. “And I think that I speak for most of the youth that now it is the goal of the modern youth to achieve the American dream that we see on TV so much.”

Visit helps fulfill President Biden’s promise

Jill Biden is the first White House official to visit the country after President Joe Biden last year pledged to send administration officials to the continent. She follows Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who visited earlier this year.

Like Biden, Thomas-Greenfield focused part of her visit around a food security crisis in East Africa — something Biden plans to highlight when she visits Kenya later this week. But these high-profile visits are also happening against the background of increased visits by top-level Russian and Chinese officials to the continent.

While the nation is a multiparty democracy, the same party — Geingo’s South West Africa People’s Organization — has led since the nation won independence more than three decades ago. And that liberation struggle pulled in other countries for support. Earlier Wednesday, Biden laid a wreath at Heroes’ Acre, a memorial to those who fought for the nation’s independence.

That memorial, with its brutalist sculpture and wide expanses of stone, bears an uncanny similarity to the Heroes’ Acre in Zimbabwe’s capital, maybe because both memorials were built by the same North Korean company. That same firm built the imposing, modernist gray cement State House where Biden was so warmly received by the first couple.

Biden also spread some warmth. As she prepared to leave Katutura, she made an unscheduled stop on the street, emerging from her SUV with a navy blue tote bag. Scores of small children – many in clothes that were torn or dirty – swarmed her as she handed out small boxes of M&Ms bearing President Joe Biden’s seal and signature.

She and granddaughter Naomi quickly passed out every box, until she was faced with an empty bag and a young boy, his eyes wide. She motioned that she was out of candy and he turned away.

Wait, she said to the little boy. He turned back. She handed him the tote bag.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that Washington is seeking to strengthen sanctions against Russia and called for more support for Ukraine as it resists Moscow’s invasion.

She was speaking in India’s technology hub of Bengaluru, where finance leaders of the Group of 20 leading economies have gathered to discuss challenges such as high debt and inflation that confront many low-income countries. She made her comments one day before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“As [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden has said, we will stand with Ukraine in its fight – for as long as it takes,” she told a news conference ahead of the G-20 meeting.

Yellen, who called Russia’s war in Ukraine a “strategic failure for the Kremlin,” said that American military and economic assistance is making it possible for Ukraine to resist the invasion and that “continued and robust” support for the embattled country will be a major topic of discussion during the G-20 meeting.

She said that in the coming months, the U.S. expects to provide around $10 billion in additional economic support for Ukraine and wants the International Monetary Fund to negotiate an agreement to lend to Ukraine.

Western sanctions imposed on Moscow are having a “very significant negative effect on Russia so far,” according to Yellen.

“While by some measures the Russian economy has held up better than might initially have been expected, Russia is now running a significant budget deficit,” Yellen said.

“It is finding it extremely difficult because of our sanctions and our export controls to obtain the material it needs to replenish its munitions and to, for example, repair 9,000 tanks that have been destroyed because of the war,” according to the Treasury secretary.

Saying that the Russians were seeking alternative ways to replace and repair weapons damaged in the war, she said that “working with our partners, we are seeking to strengthen sanctions and make sure that we address violations of sanctions.”

Yellen also warned that providing any material support to Russia’s war effort would be “a very serious concern.” Her remark came a day after Russia and China forged closer ties during a visit by Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to the Kremlin. The U.S. has expressed concern that China could supply weapons to Moscow to aid its war effort.

Yellen struck an optimistic note on the global economy, saying, “It is in a better place today than many predicted just a few months ago.” But, she cautioned, “We are not out of the woods yet.”

There had been widespread fears that the world would experience a sharp downturn in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which led to a disruption in oil and food supply chains and high inflation that hurt many countries.

As many countries grapple with mounting debt, however, Yellen said that it was important for G-20 countries to ease their financial distress.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated that about 15% of low-income countries are in “debt distress.” They range from countries such as Sri Lanka, Laos and Afghanistan in Asia to Zambia in Africa and Venezuela and Argentina in South America.

Yellen said she was hopeful that China would cooperate with other nations in providing debt relief to distressed countries, especially Zambia and Sri Lanka.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven, or G-7, leading industrialized economies are also meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 talks. They will discuss possible new sanctions against Moscow, according to the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, who is also in Bengaluru.

India, which has maintained a neutral stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine and continues to purchase oil from Moscow, is not likely to want the issue of additional sanctions to be discussed at G-20 meetings.

The gathering of the finance ministers that begins Friday is the first major meeting of India’s year-long presidency of the bloc.

Source: Voice of America