�"By moral excellence of their multiple roles, women constitute a key link in the chemical chain of development, and efforts must be made by African countries to insure that women are in a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing to be able to carry out their legion responsibilities."
This call for action was made on Tuesday in Yaound� by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, in a report to the fifty-eighth session of the WHO Regional Committee to Africa pickings place in the Cameroonian capital.
In the report, Dr Sambo proposes an action be after which countries should implement to ameliorate women's boilersuit well-being so as to enhance their contribution to development efforts throughout the Region.
The action plan includes the integration of women's issues into national policies and programmes on women's profiles; the development and effectuation of adolescent-friendly programmes on information and education; improved clinical services for women; and the scaling up of essential interventions related to to the health of women, specially those surviving in rural areas.
Other proposed actions include strengthening the content of women, families and communities with a view to empowering women, and setting up a national multidisciplinary team of experts in wellness, gender and human rights to take research on issues specific to women's health such as female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices.
The other components of the proposed plan are the mobilization of resources essential for the effective effectuation of substantive interventions, and the growth of an integrated communicating plan to increase understanding of the importance of women's roles so as to upgrade a change of behavior towards women's health issues.
"A brobdingnagian majority of African women are still unaware of their rights to health, education and life," Dr Sambo besides notes in the account, pointing out that many of them continue to be victims of sociocultural discrimination; harmful practices; gender-based violence; food taboos; forced marriages; and early, undesirable and excessive pregnancies.
He adds: "These problems conjugate with the weakness of health systems are at the root of the high mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa where one out of 26 women is at risk of dying during childbirth."
Current WHO estimates show that Africa's high maternal death rate rate is one of the Region's most tragic health problems. Of the 14 countries worldwide where maternal mortality is higher up 1000 per 100 000 live births, 13 ar in sub-Saharan Africa.
The reduction of maternal fatality rate by 75% between 1990 and 2015 is one of the targets place out in the Millennium Development Goals. However, a recent sketch by WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank shows that in 2005, only 0.1% reduction in maternal mortality was achieved in the Region.
This situation has been blamed on a figure of wellness system constraints, including the fact that 57% of women in countries in the Region lack access to help by qualified staff during childbirth.
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