$12 Billion Annually Needed to Meet MDG 5

Governments and the international community must commit funding to provide essential services to all women in developing countries to meet MDG 5 (Improve Maternal Health) by 2015. Investing in women makes sense right now and is essential for our future.

Investing another US $12 billion a year (for a total of US $24 billion) would fulfill the unmet need for family planning and provide every woman with the recommended standard of maternal and newborn care. The results:

• Reducing unintended pregnancies by more than 66%
• Preventing 70% of maternal deaths
• Averting 44% of newborn deaths
• Reducing unsafe abortion by 73%
• Cutting disability-adjusted life years lost to pregnancy-related illness and premature death by 66%

Though the funding is essential to prevent these deaths, money alone can’t solve this problem. Governments must also:

• Strengthen health systems and address serious gaps, including 1.1 million health care professionals (midwives, nurses, doctors, and specialists) and managers by 2015.
• Strengthen maternal, newborn, and reproductive health programs and institutions, and ensure that information and services are available and sensitive to and respectful of women.
• Develop monitoring and accountability mechanisms and channels for community engagement that address wider socio-economic, political, and cultural barriers to maternal and newborn health care.