ISLAMABAD, Jan 14: Pakistan is one of the few countries in the world where mother mortality rate is almost 890 for every 100,000 births with the highest fertility rate.

High infant mortality and morbidity associated with pregnancy are due to the fact that half of the women population suffer from anaemia during pregnancy and more than two-third deliver at home without trained assistance.

About 45 per cent infant mortality occurs in the first month after birth. These deaths are primarily the result of mother’s poor health and undernourishment, inadequate tetanus toxoid immunization and complication at delivery.

High fertility with an average of five children per women has resulted in a population growth of about 2.2 per cent per annum.

These depressing facts came under discussion during the first national steering committee on reproductive health. Led by the federal health minister, Dr Abdul Malik Kasi, the meeting was attended by secretary health Ijaz Rahim as vice chairman of the committee, representatives of the federal divisions related to reproductive health (RH) sector, secretaries of provincial health departments, prominent professionals and civil society leaders and representative of donor agencies.

The meeting was organized at the National Institute of Health (NIH) to review the strategic guidance for smooth implementation of the RH programme. The meeting was organized by the Women Health Project (WHP), ministry of health.

Dr Kasi said primary aim of this meeting was to provide a forum for those who would formulate policy and implement them and to identify the implementation status in the (RH) package.

Dr Kasi highlighted different areas asking the forum to review the progress of actions in health and population welfare and minimize chances of duplication in services.

Similarly measures for improvement should also be identified in public accessibility and quality of RH services, administrative and financial impediments should be discussed while remedial measures should be recommended. He also asked for accountability mechanism and partnership with the communities and NGOs to be discussed.

Ms Shaheen Masud, project director WHP on Rh in her presentation focussed on the key features of the WHP and said that the total cost of the project was $75 million of which the Asian Development Bank was providing $47 million, the OPEC fund was supporting to the tune of $10 million while the rest of the amount was being contributed by the government.

She said specific objectives of the project include expansion of basic women’s health interventions to under-served population, develop women friendly district health systems providing quality women’s healthcare from community to first referral level and strengthen the capacity of institutional and human resources to improve women’s health in the long term.

The project spans over 20 districts including Gujranwala, Sargodha, Multan, Bhakkar, Rajanpur, Bahawalpur and Hafizabad in Punjab, D I Khan, Kohat, Swat and Swabi in NWFP, Loralai, Jafferabad, Panjgoor and Khuzdar in Balochistan and Badin, Naushero Feroze, Shikarpur and Umerkot in Sindh.

The project would focus on reproductive healthcare and control of common infections with special emphasis on health and nutrition education, skilled delivery care, emergency obstetric care, family planning and immunization.