PHOTO: REUTERS
The programme has been jointly organized by the Mother, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Balochistan and the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to end preventable maternal and neonatal mortality and stillbirths in Balochistan.
At the launching ceremony, Balochistan Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Shakeela Naveed Dehwar congratulated the Health Department for launching the newborn survival strategy and said it would reduce Balochistan’s high death ratio of newborn children.
Balochistan Health Secretary Mudassir Waheed Malik said on the occasion that most of us knew Pakistan had the worst neonatal mortality rates in the world- with Balochistan contributing a large number of these newborn deaths. However, he said, most of these deaths could be prevented if mothers and newborns were to receive known, effective interventions and timely services. The Balochistan government, he said, was strongly committed to improving the population’s health status with a specific focus on mothers, newborns and children under five years of age and, for this purpose, the provincial MNCH programme was working closely with its development partners, vertical programmes and other sectors.
UNICEF Country Head Aida Girma said the first and foremost right of every newborn was to survive and be held in its mother’s arms, thus making the essential emotional connection.
“I am very pleased that UNICEF has contributed to the programme’s development in order to help save precious newborn lives”, she said during the launching ceremony of the newborn survival strategy and action plan 2020-2024.
She termed a child’s death due to a preventable cause completely unacceptable. Yet, she said, each day more than 70 newborns died in Pakistan of a preventable cause, thus adding Pakistan to the list of countries which suffered the most neonatal deaths.
“It is important to emphasize that evidence-based, cost effective interventions are available which can help combat the major causes of newborn mortality”, she said.
Aida Girma further said that training public and private health service providers in the latest techniques and processes, improving clinical case management and ensuring regular supply of critical medicines and equipment are the other important areas that must improve.
“It is our collective responsibility and UNICEF stands by the government of Pakistan as a development partner to support its efforts to help mothers and newborns survive and thrive to their full potential in life”, she said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2020.
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