“1,000 maternal and neonatal deaths per year in Zambia unacceptable” says Vice President Nalumango

Vice President Mutale Nalumango has called the high levels of maternal and neonatal deaths in Zambia “unacceptable.”

In a speech at the Maternal and Newborn Summit in Lusaka on Thursday, Nalumango highlighted the tragedy of the 1,000 mothers and babies who die in or just after childbirth each year. The speech was delivered on behalf of President Hichilema who was in Nairobi attending a presidential summit on the unrest in South Sudan.

Nalumango said, “there are a lot of factors outside the health sector that contribute to these negative outcomes.” In parallel with this, the World Bank has commented that most of the neonatal deaths recorded are due to preventable causes.

Currently, neonatal mortality in Zambia stands at 27 per 1,000 live births against the national target of 12 per 1,000 live births. The neonatal mortality rate had been on a decline since 2012, but more needs to be done as Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for almost half of the global neonatal deaths, with slow signs of reduction.

Dr. Achim Foch, World Bank Country Manager, pointed towards one of the root causes of the problem: the need to address gender inequalities. He said, “they lead to a high adolescence pregnancy rate and an unacceptable high number still of maternal deaths.”

Also at the Summit, Linnisa Wahid, Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy said, “This year we are contributing 1.4 billion Kwacha. That’s 62 million US dollars in activities that support Zambia’s reproductive, maternal, new born, child, and adolescent health and nutrition.”