The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing child mortality by two thirds and maternal deaths by three-quarters have been categorized among those where Uganda is making slow progress.
According to Dr. Acheng Jane Ruth, the Director General of Health Services at the Ministry of Health, it will have to take a lot of effort to achieve the targets of these MDGs by 2015.
Information published in the medical journal The Lancet on 20th September shows that between 1990 and 2011, infant deaths in Uganda have been reducing at an annual rate of just 2.9 percent.
Dr. Peter Ibembe, the Director of Programs at Reproductive Health Uganda says that the country’s reproductive health campaigns have not tallied with implementation, thus accounting for the slow progress.
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Data from the health ministry shows that 16 women still die while giving birth every day. Dr. Acheng says that the ministry’s target is to reduce maternal deaths from the current 435 per 100,000 mothers to at least 131. Deaths of children under 5 are to be reduced to at least 60, from the current 137 in every 1000 babies.
Acheng says that these targets can be met if the vital issue of human resources in the public health system is addressed. She says that her ministry is already making progress.
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She adds that availing free mama kits to health centers, which the ministry is already doing, will also encourage more mothers to deliver their children under proper care. A mama kit is a collection of items including a baby towel, sanitary towels, surgical razors, gloves, soap and a plastic sheet for the delivery bed among others. The market price for a mama kit is about 16,000 Uganda shillings.
But even with these efforts, the public health system is still constrained by having an insufficient budget to provide meaningful service. The current health budget is just 9.6 percent of the national budget, far below that stipulated in the Abuja Declaration which requires governments to allot at least 15 percent of their national budgets to health.
