The INFO Project Blog

The advocacy community was elated when Norway announced its US $1 billion commitment towards the Deliver Now for Women and Children campaign, which combats maternal and child health around the world. The campaign, which kicked off September 26, brings together local government agencies, civil society, media and other national and international members to allocate resources and more effectively bring health services to women and children.

The New York Times coverage of Norway’s enormous gift portrayed Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as a kind of ambassador for women and children’s health.

“I am a father,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “I see how important it is to give vaccines to my own children, and I see how unjust it is that many children do not receive this magic shot. And I am an economist. I see how cheap it is to save lives.”

Norway’s new $1 billion commitment will strengthen basic health systems that serve women and children, he said, noting that after mothers die their children often perish or become ill. Some 500,000 women die each year of pregnancy-related causes worldwide, about one each minute. In Norway, Mr. Stoltenberg said, only one in 30,000 women die in connection with childbirth, while it is one in seven in some of the poorest countries.

Although the fight to save mother and children’s lives has now received increased attention with the campaign’s kickoff, many reading these headlines know colleagues neighbors, and friends who may not comprehend the high incidence of maternal mortality, and of child mortality: Every three seconds, a child under five dies, many of preventable illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia. As Mr. Stoltenberg’s fellow maternal and child health advocates know, this plight is easily avoidable. Many hope this campaign will underline ways to overcome obstacles to safe delivery such as obstructed labor, postpartum hemorrhage and lack of access to antenatal care. Access to safe delivery, routine in much of the developed world, should not be taken for granted.

Next up in London is the conference Women Deliver, October 18-20. Register here.