Republic of Malawi SPEECH BY THE GUEST OF HONOUR, MINISTER OF HEALTH, HONOURABLE DR PETER KUMPALUME, MP AT THE OFFICAL OPENING OF A PARTNERSHIP FOR MATERNAL NEWBORN & CHILD HEALTH MEETING UMODZI PARK BICC 13 th FEBRUARY 2017 9:00 am 1
The Secretary for Health, Mrs. Chimwemwe Banda Director of PMNCH Directors and Deputy Directors from Ministry of Health All representatives from WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF All Civil Society Organisations and Partners Present here Members of the press Ladies and Gentlemen Good morning distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen. Let me start by extending a special welcome to delegates who have travelled to Malawi for the first time. It gives me great pleasure and honour to be with you this morning, to perform this noble function of addressing a cross section of actors, 2
players, advocates and generally supporters for an improved maternal, newborn and child health programme in Malawi and beyond. It is an honour and a privilege for Malawi, Ministry of Health in particular, to host this multistakeholder meeting which has been jointly organised by my Ministry and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. The Partnership for Maternal, New born & Child Health (in short PMNCH) is an alliance of more than 800 organizations in 77 countries from the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities, as well as health influencing sectors. I am aware that PMNCH through its partnercentric approach has been instrumental in 3
creating a movement for women s children s and adolescents over the last decade or so. Now with the world moving forward on the SDGs, PMNCH has a bigger role to play not only in advocating but also in holding all of us accountable for delivering better healthcare to our people. Ladies and Gentlemen, Malawi has much to share with the world about how we have tackled the issues of maternal, newborn and child health. Knowing what worked and what didn t helps us, as decision makers, to make the right decisions. It is very useful to have this level of knowledge and understanding about what has happened in Malawi over the past 15 years. We can track how specific policies and actions led to making a difference in our facilities, 4
which treat each and every family across the land. Today, we will listen to various presentations on Malawi. The presentation will give us a big picture as well as some detail. This could be by district, by facility, nationally and so forth. All of these layers map onto each other to create a rich picture for Malawi one we can explain to the rest of the world, and one we still recognise as our own. We are here today to focus our attention on getting the best of the health care services, particularly for mothers, newborns and children, for millions of families. As we do so, let us recognise that Malawi has for the past few years, made enormous progress in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health since the turn of the millennium. 5
Malawi had achieved MDG 4 faster than our neighbours - one of the few African countries which managed to reduce child deaths by two thirds way before the December 2015 deadline. At least 280,000 children were saved. Why is this, the case? A combination of political and community support and other enabling factors were and are still key to the efforts that have led to this achievement. Population-wide immunisation programmes, the distribution of insecticide-treated nets to families, efforts to treat childhood diseases, such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria have all played their part in this. The government applied high impact, evidence-based interventions to improve child survival. 6
We introduced new vaccines, increased the number of community health workers to treat those childhood illnesses and make vital antenatal and postnatal home visits. Ladies and Gentlemen, these initiatives and interventions were not easy to do. Our finances were limited. Our health workers in short supply. But it was the right investment and we have seen that investment paid off with child survival showing an impressive progress. Non-health factors have also made a difference. Life for Malawians has improved in other ways. Income per person has risen. There is greater food security. Families are having fewer children. Collectively these actions have made a significant difference for our mothers, babies and youths. 7
We have much to be proud of in Malawi s progress, but we still have much to do. As we are in this new era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must address our unfinished business. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Partnership for Maternal New born Child Health has come at an opportune time when Malawi Government under the leadership of His Excellency, Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika is preaching about Demographic Dividend. The Government has put in place several strategies to ensure that no woman dies from pregnancy related complications. Government is opening rural technical colleges to empower our youths economically. This will eventually prevent youths from early marriages and thereby promote sound sexual and reproductive health practices. 8
My Ministry had committed to do the following: Strengthen and invest in care during labour, birth and the first day and week of life the point where we can have the most impact Improve the quality of maternal and newborn care Reduce inequalities we are making sure that every family has access to life-saving treatments and interventions. Harness the power of parents, families, and communities we believe that everyone has a role to play to improve MNCH Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now time to invest in family planning strategies, including birth spacing and adolescent-friendly services, so that fewer adolescents give birth. 9
The government is also committed to updating and fully implementing a number of other key policies. The Essential Medicines List and the Malawi Standard Treatment Guidelines, Roadmap for Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality in Malawi and the Sexual, Reproductive and Health Rights Policy. All of these, if updated in line with the latest evidence and if properly implemented, could help us do the best possible job for our health system. I believe that the Partnership and all its stakeholders will compliment Government efforts through its support to update policies, mobilize finances and solutions in relation to the global and regional trends in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. 10
This Partnership must help us accelerate progress so that we can improve SRMNCH in Malawi and beyond. Today s meeting is critical as we will learn from all of you how best to align our forces and resources. I hope that you will bring solutions on mitigating barriers to alignment and barrier to prioritisation. We must have an agreement on what we want to achieve collectively and how we want to do this. The starting point for this will be strong, functional and inclusive platform where we all come together. This will add momentum and build on the substantial ground we have gained. It must give us additional momentum and added weight to our case for change we 11
must fully embrace the opportunity to learn for the future health of our people. But as you continue with your discussion, I would like all of us to remember this: We can all do something to improve the MNCH situation what you can do will depend on your skills, your time and your experience, but we can all do something. My Ministry and I are committed to fully support this Partnership and we are ready to invest in it. With these very remarks, I am happy to declare the meeting now officially opened. I thank you for your attention. 12