In Ethiopia, 350 participants from 36 African nations are meeting to create strategies for utilizing non-physician clinicians (NPCs) in the fight against maternal death and disability. The conference, entitled “Human Resources for Maternal Survival: Task-Shifting to Non-Physician Clinicians”, is a collaborative effort of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, AMDD, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO. It will end on July 2, 2009.
NPCs include nurses and midwives, and play a crucial role in African nations, especially in rural settings where physicians are in short supply. NPCs are often responsible for emergency obstetric care and sometimes for more highly specialized procedures, such as surgery. According to UNICEF, maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa is highest worldwide, while rates in North Africa follow shortly behind. Improving maternal health is the fifth goal of the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Werner Haug, Director of the Technical Division in the United Nations Population Fund, focused on the importance of working towards reproductive health and achieving benchmarks in progress by 2015. “The challenge is to produce health professionals with the right skills and in sufficient numbers to provide family planning services in every community and basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care in every district,” Dr. Haug stated. “This is an issue of equity, social justice and human rights.”
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