Ghana set to achieve zero maternal mortality target for 2057

Ghana will seek to achieve a zero maternal mortality ratio by 2057, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has said.

Speaking during the launch of 'Nonpoor' Policy Brief here, the Director General of the NDPC, Nii Moi Thompson, said this would form an integral part of Ghana's long-term development framework.

"But we choose to have a much more ambitious goal beyond even the SDGs to 2057 when Ghana would be celebrating its 100th anniversary. We saying that well there should be zero maternal mortality," he said.

In Ghana, 144 women out of every 100,000 who give birth die but the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has proposed that it be reduced globally to an average of 70.

Thompson however says the issue must be tackled not just as statistical facts.

"But we choose to have a much more ambitious goal beyond even the SDGs to 2057 when Ghana would be celebrating its 100th anniversary," said the official.

"We said that there should be zero maternal mortality. There are those who said that no, that can't be done, it's not feasible, but this is not a question of just statistics, cold statistics."

"We also have to make a moral case for zero maternal mortality ratio because no woman should be going to the hospital with the intention of giving life and then they have to lose their lives," the NDPC boss stressed.

Thompson urged that the whole of human society needs to take the moral position in addition to the statistics.

He was optimistic that the target would be achievable in the face of the advantage of improvement in medicine and institutional reforms.

The policy brief was prepared for the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) as part of the 19 institutions selected from 21 countries around the globe with four from Africa to carry out the research.

Its launching brought together officials from Germany, Senegal, India, South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico, Madagascar and Austria.

Majority Chief Whip in Ghana's Parliament Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed said there was the need for policy makers and research institutions to collaborate for effective governance.

"We need to find a connect between those of us who have the privilege to serve as policy makers and politicians and those who are doing research."

Executive Director for CDD-Ghana, Emmanuel Gyimah Buadi, said the project was aimed at building and enhancing knowledge on the nature and extent of poverty around the globe.

"The overriding objective and expected outcome of the study is to provide policy makers with a broad and deeper understanding of poverty and to foster the development of renewed policies for addressing poverty in our countries and around the world," he explained. Endit