African heads of state at AU Summit to accelerate CARMMA

The heads of state in discussion at the CARMMA special event at the AU Summit on 27 January.

UNFPA, in partnership with the African Union organized a high level event on the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA) at the 20th Africa Union Summit on 27 January 2013.

An inside look at the UNFPA CARMMA high level event

Over 30 heads of state attended the meeting including President Joyce Banda of Malawi, President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The buzz around the meeting hall was intense. More than double the expected number of guests turned up making access to the event a real challenge. Even UN Secretray-General Ban Ki-moon had a hard time entering the hall due to the large crowd at the entrance. Many high-profile individuals without invitations had to be turned away.

Inside the hall, AU Directors gave up their seats to more senior commissioners. Diplomats and ministers were left standing around. Some UNFPA staff with event passes released them to allow access for other VIPs. Members of the media were not spared either as only a handful of the over 400 credentialed journalists were allowed to enter the hall. AU event organizers said they had never seen such high attendance for any side event."It set a great precedent in political mobilization which will take a while to be matched." noted one of the AU colleagues.

Results

Apart from the high attendance, the African heads of state who spoke at the event made strong commitments to strengthening various areas of maternal health. For example, UNFPA became $500,000 richer courtesy of financial commitment from the President of Gabon, H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Heads of state commit to CARMMA

At the event, African leaders reaffirmed their commitment to CARMMA by:

Redoubling efforts to improve maternal, newborn and child health to speed up progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Encouraging more states to launch CARMMA and urging all countries to seek new ways of channeling additional human, financial, domestic and external resources for maternal and child health.
Expanding access to family planning and other reproductive health services as well as reducing the huge unmet need for contraception.
Strengthening health systems and ensuring the availability of life-saving commodities to support universal access to high-impact health interventions, especially those under the Every Woman, Every Child global strategy on health.
Investing in human resources for health, building skilled and motivated workforces, including midwives, to increase access to skilled birth attendance and strengthen emergency referrals for complicated deliveries.