Mr President,

The year 2015 is coming closer and we all know we are behind schedule. Especially MDG 5 - Improve maternal health - is off track. I would like to focus on this MDG, since progress on MDG5 is crucial for achieving the other MDGs.

A woman still dies from pregnancy-related causes every minute. More than 536,000 per year, 99 % of them in the poorest countries. Worldwide about 13% of maternal mortality is due to unsafe abortion. In some countries it may even be more than 30%. The financial loss to families, communities and countries has been estimated at more than 15 billion dollars per year in e.g. foregone income and additional medical costs.

Maternal mortality could be cut by nearly three-quarters by improving women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health services, which includes preventing or managing abortion-related complications.

Global recognition of the problem is growing. At the World Summit in 2005 the international community agreed that universal access to reproductive health should be achieved by 2015. The recent inclusion of this target in the MDG monitoring framework was long overdue and means a very important recognition of this important issue.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights is a delicate matter, often surrounded by stigma and taboos. This might explain the lack of political will in some countries to really tackle the issue, as well as the fact that funding is still lagging far behind compared to what is needed.

Mr President,

The main responsibility for achieving the MDGs lies at the country level. An excellent example of clear political will and concrete action is the Maputo Plan of Action. It provides a policy framework for sexual and reproductive health and rights for the African continent, in which African leaders committed to specific actions needed to achieve universal access to reproductive health. I would be interested to hear from my African colleagues where we are with the implementation of this Plan.

International aid should support national efforts. Development assistance for maternal and newborn health was estimated at only 530 million dollars in 2004. To get to the additional 5.5 billion dollars needed to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 by 2015, donor funding will need to increase more than ten times its 2004 level. While the gap in investment needed for maternal health may seem large, it represents a small fraction of global GNP and total development aid. The US$5.5 billion annual shortfall is only 0.016% of global GNP. Providing this small proportion of GNP annually by 2015 is well within our grasp.

The Netherlands has declared equal rights and opportunities for women and girls, as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights, top priorities in its development cooperation programme. The Netherlands has allocated an additional 200 million dollars to MDGs 3 and 5.

Mr President,

To achieve the MDGs we need innovative approaches. Governments cannot do it alone. In particular for MDG 3 and 5 the commitment of society as a whole is of crucial importance: government, civil society organizations, the private sector, institutions of knowledge, religious institutions, labour unions and private persons. The Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands signed almost 40 alliances with public and private partners. One examples is an alliance for the production and marketing of a cheaper female condom. There is also a public private partnership on MDG 5, signed by a group of twenty organisations like Flying Doctors, pharmaceutical companies and medical professional groups. Partners work together in smaller groups to develop concrete activities that lead to improved maternal and women’s health.

In conclusion, to achieve this crucial MDG – and I refer here also to the statement of the Minister of Slovenia on behalf of the EU which we, of course, fully support -, we need further recognition of the issues, political will and action, both at the global and national level, scaling up of aid efforts and an innovative approach by involving new partners in development cooperation. The GA-meeting on Africa’s development needs on the 22nd of September and the MDG-event organized by the President of the General Assembly and the Secretary General on the 25th of September will be two additional occasions to rally global support to achieve this critical goal of improving maternal health.