UN Secretary-General’s MDG Report for 2014 emphasizes need for “bolder and focused action" on child and maternal mortality

The UN Secretary-General’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2014 is now available. It notes the progress that has been made in areas such as halving global poverty; 90% of children in developing regions being enrolled in primary education with a narrowing of disparities between boys and girls; gains in the fight against malaria and tuberculosis; and the meeting of the target of halving the proportion of people who lack access to improved sources of water. Nevertheless, more progress is needed to address child mortality and much more needs to be done to reduce maternal mortality.

MDG target 5A Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015 the maternal mortality ratio

While the global maternal mortality ratio dropped by 45 per cent between 1990 and 2013, from 380 to 210 deaths per 100,000 live births, in 2013 an estimated 289,000 women died from pregnancy related causes, and most of them were preventable. The maternal mortality ratio in developing countries, 230 per 100,000 was 14 times higher than that of developed countries, with the highest ratio in sub-Saharan Africa (510 per 100,000)

MDG target 5B Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

Stressing the importance of skilled health care during pregnancy, the proportion of women who were attended at least once has increased from 65 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2012. Nevertheless, while the World Health Organization recommends a minimum of four visits, only 52 percent of pregnant women reached this number, although it was an increased from 37 percent in 1990.

There was a decline in the number of births to adolescent girls aged 15-19 across all world regions between 1990 and 2011. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, there was only a slight drop in the birth rate in this age group – 117 per 1,000 girls –much higher than other regions.

There has been an increase in the use of contraception in developing regions, partly as a result of improved access to safe, affordable and effective methods of contraception. This was accompanied by a decline in the unmet need for family planning from 17 to 12 percent. Again the highest unmet need remains in sub-Saharan Africa where the total demand for family planning was lower than in any other region.

Contraceptive use has increased but gaps persist in meeting the demand for family planning