Youth urged to take action towards achieving Zero Maternal Deaths

By Emmanuel HAKIZIMANA & Elias HAKIZIMANA.

Rwandan youth, health workers and medical professionals have been called to take action towards achieving the reduction of maternal deaths to zero.

The call was made by the Minister of Health Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana on Thursday, May 18, 2023, in Kigali during the ICPD25 Follow-up Action 2023 meeting that embarked on the evaluation of six of the commitments of Rwanda to the ICPD25.

It was organized by the African Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) with a focus on engaging Youth to increase demand on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH) and accelerating the realization of the ICPD25 towards ICPD30.

The meeting aimed to self-evaluate the progress made since the dissemination of the action plan and shape the next steps towards achieving the Rwanda ICPD25 commitments, with a focus on meaningful youth participation.

Based on an analysis undertaken by UNFPA, at least 90 (31%) of the universal periodic review (UPR) recommendations received are related to the ICPD agenda and the Nairobi Summit, which Rwanda supported at the highest level, including making six key commitments: To support universal access to sexual, reproductive, maternal, new-born, child, and adolescent health and specifically through the following six commitments: 

The evaluation showed a progress in implementing most of the commitments, but few remain unaccomplished.

Minister Nsanzimana said that there have been tremendous strides in reducing maternal deaths, but there is a need to accelerate the move.

“This meeting was to recall the role of every key player including youth who are studying nursing and midwifery, maternal and neonatal deaths are still occurring, but some districts have done well to reduce them, we plan to reward those who played such a vital role to achieve the goal, but also looking at some challenges others faced in this regard,” Nsanzimana said.

He said that ten districts in Rwanda have significantly managed to reduce maternal deaths while in other district the number of deaths has doubled.

“We need to put extra efforts to save lives of mothers and newborns in the other ten districts that still have a big number of maternal deaths.

He highlighted five major causes of maternal deaths including the status of available materials, behaviours of medical personnel and environmental issues especially in the high hills where the ambulances get difficulties to pass.

“Gradually, we immediately try to seek solutions for those challenges, our goal is to have less than 100 deaths out of 100,000 mothers and we are now at 203/100,000 births, we wish to achieve zero maternal deaths in the future,” Dr. Nsanzimana noted.  

He said that Rwanda is in a good progress towards achieving its commitments which include but are not limited to a 15% increase of domestic budgetary allocation for health in line with the Abudja Declaration, with the current 16.5 percent.

Felicien Ishimwe, one of the youths who participated at the meeting said that the ICPD25 has many achievements in Rwanda, saying that youth contribute indirectly towards such successes.

“We all need to join efforts, being Civil Society, the Government and the family. The role of a man in the family is very critical as maternal and child health is under the responsibilities of both parents,” Ishimwe said.

Evode Niyibizi, Country Director of AfriYAN in Rwanda said that youth are fully committed in helping the country to achieve its development agendas, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Vision 2050.

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