Rwanda commended for fighting maternal and child mortality

Rwanda has been listed among the countries on track to meet the 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on maternal and child mortality. According to a report by University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Rwanda is progressing at a commendable rate. “Countries like Rwanda, China and Botswana were praised for substantial acceleration in tackling child mortality in the past decade,” the report reads in part. In 2000, 189 Heads of State signed the Millennium Declaration, committing to achieve eight development goals for their countries and the target for Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Four was to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. According to the Director General in charge of Communications at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Arthur Asiimwe, the good performance is a result of a combination of efforts by players in the health sector. “To attain MDGs you must have a vibrant and committed health sector willing to work towards providing health services to the population; that’s what we have tried to put in place,” Asiimwe said. “We have our own home grown solutions like Mutuelle de Santé that enable the population, including children, to access medical care effectively. We are on track and shall achieve this MDG,” The report says that in Rwanda, Cambodia, Ecuador, Malaysia, and Vietnam, child mortality fell by 5 percent annually or higher, while globally, the child mortality rate fell by 2.6 percent annually. According to the report, maternal mortality has also continued to decline, from 409,100 deaths in 1990 to 273,500 deaths in 2011. In 125 countries, maternal mortality has declined faster since 2000, and the progress has been particularly steady in the last five years. Ends

National

Rwanda commended for fighting maternal and child mortality