State of the World’s Mothers Report 2014 launched

Wednesday 2 July 2014

Ethiopia top country in Africa in reducing maternal deaths

Ethiopia leads the way in Africa in tackling maternal deaths, Save the Children says in its annual 15th State of the World’s Mothers Report. Since 2000 Ethiopia has reduced its lifetime risk of maternal death by nearly two-thirds (from 1 in 24 to 1 in 67) – more than every other country on the African continent, says the report.
Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program (HEP), which created access to preventive and promotive services as well as selected high impact curative interventions at community level, is one of the contributing factors for reducing maternal and child deaths in the country. The program improves the utilization of health services by bridging the gap between the community and health facilities through the deployment of more than more than 34,000 Health Extension Workers (HEWs).
While commending Ethiopia for making the remarkable progress, John Graham called for more efforts to address the country’s maternal mortality, which is still high.
The government has also built more than 3,500 health centers and 16,000 health posts to increase access to essential health services to communities across the country.
In Ethiopia, the report was launched in a joint press conference given by Save the Children and Ministry of Health.