Chances get slim for Uganda to attain MDG 4, 5 targets-Repor

Chances get  slim for Uganda to attain MDG 4, 5 targets-Report

KAMPALA. Although Uganda has registered  remarkable progress in  improving both child and maternal health care, there is still an uphill task of addressing neonatal mortality rate in the next four months if the country is to fully achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5,a new survey  has shown .

Neonatal mortality rate is the number of babies dying before reaching 28 days of age; per 1,000 live births in a given year. For the case of Uganda, neonatal mortality rate currently stands at 27 per 1,000 live births and government had earlier projected to reduce it to 23 per 1,000 live births by 2015.

“Available evidence suggests that Uganda has witnessed accelerated progress towards the attainment of the under-five mortality target between 2006 and 2011 and could achieve the 2015 target of 56/1,000 live births. However, this will depend heavily on a drastic fall in neonatal mortality rate in the remaining period,” the 68-page report reads in part.

According to the 2012/13 State of Uganda Children report , the country’s  maternal mortality ratio which was expected to  drastically fall to 131/100,00 as the 2015 deadline comes closer ,has  stagnated  at 438/100,000 live births.
Since 2006, the maternal mortality rate in Uganda has stagnated at 438 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The report, which was compiled by the National Council for Children was launched in Kampala yesterday .It assesses the progress Uganda has made in realizing the two MDGs on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health and provides recommendations to fast-track progress .

State minister in charge of Primary Health Care, Sarah Opendi, who launched the report, said the challenge facing Uganda was not only to maintain the down ward trend in overall child mortality, but also to adopt a strong geographical and population focus to health care provision.

“The challenge before us is to ensure that we make a strategic shift and put  emphasis on those geographical areas like Karamoja, northern Uganda which have the highest mortality and populations groups carrying the largest disease burden” she said

She said, although government had scaled up immunisation of children (96 percent) and reduced the number of children being born with HIV   from 25,000 to 8,000, a bigger challenge is still with the high number of existing malnourished children.

The eight Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, increasing access to universal primary education and developing a global partnership for development by 2015 are a blue print agreed to by world leaders in 2000.

However, many African countries are lagging behind on achieving MDGs barely four months to the 2015 deadline   and for the case of Uganda it has only succeeded in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving debt sustainability and it is quite clear that it may not achieve other goals in just a few months. 

Chances get  slim for Uganda to attain MDG 4, 5 targets-Report

KAMPALA. Although Uganda has registered  remarkable progress in  improving both child and maternal health care, there is still an uphill task of addressing neonatal mortality rate in the next four months if the country is to fully achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5,a new survey  has shown .

Neonatal mortality rate is the number of babies dying before reaching 28 days of age; per 1,000 live births in a given year. For the case of Uganda, neonatal mortality rate currently stands at 27 per 1,000 live births and government had earlier projected to reduce it to 23 per 1,000 live births by 2015.

“Available evidence suggests that Uganda has witnessed accelerated progress towards the attainment of the under-five mortality target between 2006 and 2011 and could achieve the 2015 target of 56/1,000 live births. However, this will depend heavily on a drastic fall in neonatal mortality rate in the remaining period,” the 68-page report reads in part.

According to the 2012/13 State of Uganda Children report , the country’s  maternal mortality ratio which was expected to  drastically fall to 131/100,00 as the 2015 deadline comes closer ,has  stagnated  at 438/100,000 live births.
Since 2006, the maternal mortality rate in Uganda has stagnated at 438 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The report, which was compiled by the National Council for Children was launched in Kampala yesterday .It assesses the progress Uganda has made in realizing the two MDGs on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health and provides recommendations to fast-track progress .

State minister in charge of Primary Health Care, Sarah Opendi, who launched the report, said the challenge facing Uganda was not only to maintain the down ward trend in overall child mortality, but also to adopt a strong geographical and population focus to health care provision.

“The challenge before us is to ensure that we make a strategic shift and put  emphasis on those geographical areas like Karamoja, northern Uganda which have the highest mortality and populations groups carrying the largest disease burden” she said

She said, although government had scaled up immunisation of children (96 percent) and reduced the number of children being born with HIV   from 25,000 to 8,000, a bigger challenge is still with the high number of existing malnourished children.

The eight Millennium Development Goals which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, ensuring environmental sustainability, increasing access to universal primary education and developing a global partnership for development by 2015 are a blue print agreed to by world leaders in 2000.

However, many African countries are lagging behind on achieving MDGs barely four months to the 2015 deadline   and for the case of Uganda it has only succeeded in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving debt sustainability and it is quite clear that it may not achieve other goals in just a few months.