Aid cuts threaten battle against maternal mortality: UN
GENEVA
Maternal mortality rates have dropped dramatically in the past quarter of a century, but the U.N. on Monday warned that progress had stalled, risking major backsliding amid unprecedented global aid cuts.
In a fresh report, the World Health Organization said that global maternal deaths had dropped 40 percent since the turn of the century.
But it warned that the progress had largely stagnated since 2016.
"The pace of progress has slowed to a near standstill, [and] in some regions, we are already sliding backwards," Pascale Allotey, head of WHO's sexual reproductive health and research department, told reporters.
Stressing that "most maternal deaths are preventable", she warned that "in this context of fragility, complacency is not just dangerous, it is deadly."
In 2023, the last year for which there is data, an estimated 260,000 maternal deaths were reported, or around one every two minutes.
While progress in the battle against maternal mortality began to slow nearly a decade ago, U.N. agencies voiced concern that the situation could dramatically worsen amid global aid cuts.
Humanitarian organisations worldwide have been reeling since Donald Trump returned to office in January, immediately freezing most U.S. foreign aid funding.
When it comes to battling maternal mortality, "we're going to face increasing headwinds", warned Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of universal health coverage.
The funding cuts, he told reporters, constituted "an acute shock, and countries have not had time to put in place and plan for what other financing they're going to use... to try and make sure the most essential services can continue".
