CAPE TOWN – Leading global health experts, policy-makers and parliamentarians convened in Cape Town last week to address the urgent need for accelerated progress to reduce maternal, newborn and child deaths, if internationally-agreed targets are to be met.

UNICEF is marking International Women’s Day 2008 (8 March) by drawing attention to the need for improvements in maternal health care.

Better access to maternal health care will reduce the estimated half a million pregnancy related deaths that occur each year and also help reduce child mortality rates.

3 September 2007 – Child deaths worldwide have reached a record low, falling below 10 million per year for the first time to 9.7 million, down from almost 13 million in 1990, according to new figures released today by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), thanks mainly to campaigns to combat measles and malaria and promote exclusive breast-feeding.