Promising collaboration in maternal and newborn health

Every day about 800 women worldwide die from complications related to pregnancy and child birth. This equals 1.5 times the number of passengers fitting into an Airbus A380 or 2.5 times the number of passengers in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. 99 percent of these maternal deaths occur in developing countries and most of them are preventable. With the worldwide start of its Future Vision Programme on 1st July 2013, Rotary International takes up the challenge of accelerating progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, including 5b and the associated MDG 4, with the area of focus 'Maternal and Child Health'. The Rotarian Action Group for Population & Development (RFPD) - one of Rotary's official resources for this area of focus - joined forces with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to combine two important factors in improving maternal and child health: FIGO's medical expertise, Rotary's network and RFPD's experience in implementing successful maternal and newborn health projects. The collaboration between FIGO and RFPD was sealed with a Memorandum of Understanding at the end of 2012 with the aim of promoting and supporting best practices that sustainably reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.