UN Draft Letter to Heads of State
Declaration High Burden Country


To,
The Chief Advisor,
The Caretaker Government,
Government of Bangladesh

Dear Sir,

We write to express our respect for the stand you have taken with the other world leaders who signed the Declaration on the Millennium Development Goals and our appreciation that, in doing so, you have made public your recognition that without urgent and concerted action by all nations the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not be achieved by 2015. Thus, we appeal to you to assert bold and thoughtful leadership when nations convene at the UN in September to chart a course to accelerate action on the MDGs.

Furthermore, we urge you to give special consideration to the steps that are yet to be taken within [name of country] and globally to save the lives of millions of women who die needlessly in pregnancy and childbirth, almost always for lack of care taken for granted by all but the worlds poorest and most vulnerable people. Indeed, the MDG to reduce maternal mortality by 75\% by 2015 necessitates a renewed focus on developing nations where 99\% of maternal deaths occur as it is the one MDG where virtually no progress has been made worldwide for 20 years.

Maternal mortality is the single greatest indicator of the failure of governments to ensure their people access to a functioning health system. We can not accept that a womans risk of dying in childbirth is 1 in 26 in Africa as compared to 1 in 7,300 in industrialized regions. Nor can we disregard the millions of perinatal deaths (stillbirths and deaths) that are largely the result of the same gaps in health care that cause the death and disability of their mothers. Even in the poorest communities, where there is the political will to invest in quality obstetric and emergency care, almost all women live through the complications that would otherwise kill them.

Saving the lives of mothers is one of the most crucial steps towards achieving the other MDGs, including reducing infant and child mortality, combating malaria and other diseases, educating children, and reducing poverty. When mothers survive, they feed their children, take them for their vaccinations, and get them into a school. By contrast, children who have lost their mothers are almost ten times less likely to make it to their 5th birthday.

We must all be held to account for the devastation wrought by maternal deaths. Although recent recognition by the European Union, the African Union, and G8 nations that richer nations must reaffirm commitments to assist poorer nations and increase health workers to strengthen health systems is commendable, we challenge heads of state to set specific targets and timelines to negotiate agreements with those responsible for ensuring healthy pregnancy and safe childbirth for all women, regardless of where they live.

Therefore, we encourage you to commit Bangladesh to play its part to save womens lives by acknowledging that maternal mortality is the best indicator for judging the success of a health system and announcing your plans to:

Invest 15\% of our national budget in health systems with priority to maternal health in communities where women die in childbirth

Make a specific commitment to Increase the number of trained health workers to meet 2.3 workers per thousand with emphasis on skilled birth attendants integral to community-based care

Every minute another woman dies in childbirth. Please make sure that the opportunity to take meaningful steps to save mothers lives during the upcoming high-level meetings at the UN is optimized through our countrys participation. We thank you for representing our concerns and raising our appeal that all nations move from pledges and promises to decisions and actions that sustain tangible results.

We humbly submit,