Martina Abwol holds her newborn grandson at a maternity warn in Uganda, in this 2007 file photo.Euan Denholm/Reuters
The United Nations has followed through on the Canadian-led initiative to improve maternal and child health by recommending ways to better track the money pledged by wealthy nations to improve the lot of women and their offspring in poorer countries.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who made maternal and child health the signature issue at last year's Group of Eight summit in Huntsville, Ont., issued a statement Friday to endorse the report of the United Nations Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health.
"Making the Commission's recommendations a reality will help ensure that our collective efforts will produce tangible results for the world's most vulnerable people," said Mr. Harper, who was co-chair of the effort along with Tanzanian President J.M. Kikwete.
Canada has pledged a billion dollars to improve the health of the world's poorest women and their babies.
The report, released Friday, makes 10 recommendations. Most of them are aimed at improving the systems that measure women's health around the world and improve the accountability for spending the money that has been donated.
They include increasing the number of countries that have good mechanisms for measuring births, deaths and causes of death and requires all stakeholders to publicly share information on commitments, resources provided and results achieved.
"Canada's efforts are focused on strengthening health services at the community level, improving nutrition for both mothers and children and preventing and treating the most prevalent illnesses and diseases that cause maternal and child mortality," Mr. Harper said. "Canada will incorporate the recommendations into its work and help developing countries implement the recommendations into their own national plans."
Mr. Harper selected improving maternal and child health as his cause when he hosted the summit because it was a millennium development goal with a success rate that was lagging far behind others.
But it also drew criticism, particularly from the Liberals who then formed the Official Opposition, because the Conservative government refused to fund family planning and abortion as part of the initiative.
Mr. Harper eventually relented on the family-planning funding but refuses to channel the money to abortions.