WHO events addressing public health priorities: Saving the lives of mothers and children

The urgency of scaling up action on maternal and child health: When the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were formulated in the year 2000, 2 of the 8 goals directly related to maternal and child health, highlighting the importance of reducing the unacceptable levels of maternal and child deaths globally. Countries committed to working to achieve a 66% reduction in under-5 mortality (MDG 4) and a 75% reduction in the maternal mortality ratio (MDG 5) by 2015. But, so far progress in reducing mortality in developing countries has been slow.