Generating political priority for maternal mortality reduction in 5 developing countries

Abstract

I conducted case studies on the level of political priority given to maternal mortality reduction in 5 countries: Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Among the factors that shaped political priority were international agency efforts to establish a global norm about the unacceptability of maternal death; those agencies' provision of financial and technical resources; the degree of cohesion among national safe motherhood policy communities; the presence of national political champions to promote the cause; the deployment of credible evidence to show policymakers a problem existed; the generation of clear policy alternatives to demonstrate the problem was surmountable; and the organization of attention-generating events to create national visibility for the issue. The experiences of these 5 countries offer guidance on how political priority can be generated for other health causes in developing countries.

Figure 1

As part of a Unicef-funded Safe Motherhood program, Arik Dhelbeny, 18 years old and 6 months pregnant, attends a prenatal check-up in Rumbek Hospital, Southern Sudan. Photograph by Georgina Cranston. Available at http://www.Galbe.com.