Tunisia Live (Tunis)
Jaber Belkhiria
26 November 2011
In an attempt to reduce maternal mortality, Tunisia is the first North African country to launch the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).
CARMMA was launched on Thursday in Tunis, during a regional conference held at the initiative of the Public Health Ministry and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It aims at sharing experiences with other African countries in maternal mortality reduction, improving good practices and boosting co-operation among states of the South.
The attendees pointed out that the reduction of maternal mortality is a social responsibility which requires the adoption of a concerted policy, defence of women’s rights and co-ordination of the various stakeholders’ efforts in the health field.
“We need to make more efforts to reduce maternal mortality, otherwise we will never reach our goal in 2015, which is 18,7 per 100.000 live births,” said Mr. Hafedh Chekir, the Arab States’ Regional Office Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Maternal mortality in Tunisia already decreased from 68.9 per 100,000 live births in 1993/1994 to 36.3 in 2005/2007, according to a recent survey published in the International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
The improvement in maternal health in recent years can be credited to the voluntary political commitment focused on gender-related concerns, including access to family planning, the legalization of abortion, the creation of the National Board for Family and Population, and the Tunisian Safe Motherhood Program initiated in 1999.
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