Efforts to reduce high maternal and child mortality received a welcome boost with the launch of a new global campaign, Zero Mothers Die, at an official high-level side event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Unveiled at the 5th Women Leaders Forum on 22 September, the campaign seeks to ensure that all women and girls have universal access to information and services supporting maternal, newborn and child health. Zero Mothers Die intends to use information and communications technologies, including mobile technology, to deliver timely health-care information to women in need.

Participating in the launch of the campaign, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé maintained that the initiative will focus on all pregnant women and new mothers, and will have as an aim preventing mother-to-child-transmission of HIV. He stressed that no mother would be left behind.      

Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, wife of the United Nations Secretary-General, gave the keynote address of the event, which brought together a range of global leaders, including a number of First Ladies. The new campaign contributes to the Every Women Every Child initiative launched by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010.   

Although significant progress has been made in reducing maternal mortality, it remains a critical issue. According to World Health Organization statistics, every day around 800 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth and in 2013 289 000 women lost their lives.

The event was co-hosted by the Advanced Development for Africa Foundation and the Global Partnerships Forum, in collaboration with UNAIDS, the International Telecommunication Union, the Zero Mothers Die Consortium and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

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The vital role of faith-based organizations in putting sexual and reproductive health firmly on the post-2015 development agenda was explored during a high-level side event at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Described as a “call to action”, the meeting, held on 18 and 19 September, brought together members of a broad range of faith communities from around the world, who were joined by representatives of the United Nations Population Fund, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and UNAIDS.

Participants discussed how to harness the influence of faith-based organizations and work with the United Nations system to help ensure that sexual and reproductive health and rights are central to the post-2015 sustainable development goals being debated by the General Assembly. This, it was argued, would build on the already active part many such organizations play in offering support in this critical sphere. Delegates agreed, for example, that the AIDS response has benefited tremendously from faith-based programmes in health service provision and community-based care, as well as in advocacy, the championing of human rights, gender equality and challenging stigma and discrimination.

It was acknowledged that the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights raises some contentious issues for a number of faith-based organizations, such as gender equality, contraception and sexuality education.

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