Gillian Merron, MP – Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development

14th July 2008, House of Lords, London

Thank you very much Chris.  It really is a pleasure to join you all this evening for World Population Day.  And it’s a real honour to be here with Sarah, whose words just now I thought were so apt for today, and put so well.  And I’m very much looking forward to hearing Gill Greer speaking later.

There are many powerful advocates for maternal health here this evening. It is so important that we maintain a united front on maternal health issues and sexual and reproductive health and rights, which your group champions so well.

Thank you in particular to Chris and the other members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for all the work that you do. You have worked tirelessly to keep this issue high on the agenda.  We owe you a debt of gratitude.

Over the last few years we have seen some encouraging progress in reducing maternal mortality.  But the truth is, as Sarah so powerfully reminded us just now, that progress on MDG 5 has stalled and half a million women are still dying needlessly every year during pregnancy and childbirth.

That works out as one death every minute.  It’s a global tragedy.

A few months ago I met a woman called Victoria in Ghana who has spent 31 years working as a midwife. During her career, she has delivered literally thousands of babies and seen a lot of change. But the health district that she works in still has only four health clinics to serve 130,000 people and only around a third of women give birth with a professional health worker at their side.

And a few weeks ago in Malawi I met Georgina Waraza, a 17 year old mother, who thanks to our support can now give birth in a safe environment.  Georgina stood up in front of her community and told me about her experience of giving birth and about how grateful she was for the care that she received.

It’s not difficult to see what we need to do.  We have the technology, the know-how.  It is an issue of advocacy and political will.

Sarah’s presence here, and her ground-breaking work along with the staff of the White Ribbon Alliance, shows how dedicated she is.  We are lucky to have you.

When I was in Malawi I met with White Ribbon Alliance volunteers. They have been actively working with parliamentarians and local women to raise awareness of maternal health and to make it a political issue.  Really important work.  So I’m pleased that DFID has been able to help the Alliance by providing £86,000 to intensify their efforts.

I also want to pay tribute to the work that Gill Greer and her staff at IPPF are doing. 

They continue to bravely champion the neglected services which are so vital to protect sexual and reproductive health and rights, such as safe abortion services and providing reproductive health services for vulnerable groups, including adolescents. 

These neglected services include projects to enable rural and marginalized women to access safe abortion services in Nepal and helping men who have sex with men in India to access the health services they need to protect themselves and others.

We firmly support their efforts.  So I am pleased to announce DFID’s new five-year commitment to support IPPF’s core work. We will provide £8.5 million each year for the next five years. This is in recognition of IPPF’s continued strong performance in improving the effectiveness of its operations. 

This new allocation of £42.5 million over five years for IPPF is in addition to the £100 million funding, over five years, for the United Nations Population Fund to provide reproductive health commodities and supplies, which was announced by Douglas Alexander at the Women Deliver conference last October.

We really hope that other major funding agencies supporting IPPF and the UN Population Fund will match this approach, providing long-term, predictable funding. 

Together we can make sure that maternal mortality doesn’t remain the forgotten Millennium Development Goal, and we can help the millions of women around the world who desperately need - and deserve - our support.  We still have a mountain to climb, but we know what need to do.

Thank you.