Lack of funding stalls MDGs

Tafadzwa Ndlovu Herald Reporter
Lack of funding has stalled the attainment of Millennium Development Goals targeted at reducing maternal mortality and increasing universal access to reproductive health in Zimbabwe, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Oppah Muchinguri made the remarks yesterday in Harare during the review of the 58th Session on the Commission on the Status of Women which was held in March in New York.

She said the conference highlighted that rural and poor societies were still facing challenges concerning maternal mortality and access to reproductive health services.

“In relation to MDG Five, it was revealed that the progress towards its two targets to reduce maternal mortality and to achieve universal access to reproductive health has been particularly slow and uneven especially for the poorest and rural sectors of the population within and across countries,” she said.

“The commission expressed concern over the significant gaps in funding and the magnitude of unmet needs for all sexual and reproductive health care services including emergency facilities.”

Minister Muchinguri said no country had achieved gender equality so far and the commission agreed that issues of gender equality were to be included in post-2015 framework for gender targets.

Minister Muchinguri also launched the Beijing +20 consultative process which seeks to assess the progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and its Platform for Action.

The Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, is an agenda for women’s empowerment, offering a defining policy framework for gender equality.