The extraordinary strides made in the past years by countries such as Rwanda and Ethiopia with regard to the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should encourage the whole world to go all-out to make childbirths safer and mothers healthier.

The call was made by Melinda Gates, the co-chair and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday during the opening of the Global Maternal Newborn Health Conference 2015 underway in Mexico City, Mexico.

Gates said: "The MDGs can be considered a resounding success. They focused on our collective attention on some of the most serious challenges the world faced at the start of a new century. And the concrete targets they set, enabled countries to track and measure progress, inspired large reductions in poverty, malnutrition, maternal and child mortality and other problems affecting the world’s poorest people.

"Several countries made extraordinary strides. Rwanda’s recent progress in reducing child mortality is the fastest in recorded history. And look at Ethiopia. Ethiopia met all its Millennium Development Goals. We can take great encouragement from such transformations; just as we should be inspired by some of the other stunning achievements of the past generation.”

Over 1,000 delegates are currently gathered in Mexico City to discuss strategies on how to make high quality healthcare accessible to every mother and newborn.

Despite the considerable progress made globally, Gates said, it is up to us to make good on the ambitious and achievable Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the world endorsed last month at the United Nations.

The ongoing conference is the first major global development conference since world leaders ratified that the SDGs should focus on maternal and newborn health.

Success in this agenda is fundamental to overall success, Gates said, explaining that this is partly because there is need to get to the "millions of people we have not yet reached.”

She said it is imperative that countries put the health and wellbeing of women and children at the heart of their collective efforts.

"For all the headway we have made on so many fronts, the hard truth is that progress on newborn health has lagged behind. In just the short time I will be speaking to you, nearly 70 newborns will die – almost all from preventable causes,” Gates said.

About 800 women are dying needlessly every day from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and the scale of the challenge remaining is clear, she said, adding that the health of newborns is inextricably connected to the wellbeing of their mothers.

Being the first joint global conference on maternal and newborn health, Gates congratulated the leadership of partners, scientists, academics and advocates gathered in Mexico City to try work out strategies to improving the lives of mothers and newborns.

Global disparities

Gates talked of the need to remember the enormous disparities that exist within countries, noting that investing in the health and wellbeing of women and children is one of the smartest economic investments "we can make.”

She said it is essential that global efforts are aligned across the range of care that starts with family planning.

"All the data proves that helping a woman plan and space her pregnancies is the most effective way to save mothers and newborns. And we know, it does not end there. If women space their pregnancies, they are more likely to have healthy babies. If their babies are healthy, they are more likely to flourish as children,” she said.

"When health improves, life improves by every measure. Better health leads to better education, which leads to better economic opportunities, which lead to broader prosperity for communities and countries.”

By integrating global efforts, she said, not only does everyone benefit but those benefits last a lifetime.

Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of UNFPA and UN Under Secretary-General, observed that women empowerment is vital for the cause.

"Women are better leaders and the future of this world belongs to the adolescent girl,” he said.