12,000 women die a year due to maternity complications
"Only one in ten births takes place at a health facility and only few more are attended by medically trained personnel," he said at the inaugural session of NGO Service Delivery Programme (NSDP) Conference 2007.
The USAID-funded NSDP and Grameenphone organised the conference at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the city.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Maternal mortality rate, which is now 3.2 per one thousand live births, could be significantly reduced by improving nutrition of female children and adolescents, providing skilled attendance at delivery and timely referral in case of complication, the adviser said while speaking as the chief guest.
Dr Rahman said the government in collaboration with the World Bank, Unicef and United Nations Population Fund launched a pilot programme to ensure high quality maternal health care services.
Although Bangladesh has achieved a significant reduction in under-five mortality from 133 per one thousand in the early 90's to 88 per one thousand in early 2004, it was still ranked 7th among the 42 countries contributing to 90 percent of all childhood deaths worldwide, he noted.
To address the issue of reduction in fertility further, he said "Efforts are needed to shift planning use patterns towards more effective, longer lasting and lower cost clinical and permanent methods."
The NGOs should make a significant effort to support the government's promotional efforts to popularise the use of permanent and long-term methods of family planning, he noted.
At the conference, which was organised at the end of five-year programme of NSDP, USAID Acting Mission Director Roger D Carlson said under NSDP there are 31 NGOs at 318 urban and rural clinics, 8,200 satellite clinics, and 6,000 homes of community volunteers that managed high quality services in 61 districts of the country.
The programme has provided health services including family planning and reproductive health care and maternal and child health care in catchment areas of 20 million people, he said, adding that 58 percent of married couples now use contraceptives compared to 8 percent in the 1970's.
Former adviser to the caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan, Zafarullah Chowdhury of Gonoshasthya Kendra, Dhaka University Professor Abul Barakat, Ehsan Ul Fattah, secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Prof Dr Khondaker Shefyetullah, acting director general of the directorate of health services, Abdul Mannan, director general of the director general of family planning, Dr Henry Forster, chair of board of directors of Pathfinder International HQ, Dr Robert J Timmons, chief of party of NSDP, Kafil HS Muyeed of Grameenphone, Sheri-Nouane of USAID, Prof Dr MS Akbar and Dr Mahbubur Rahman also spoke at the programme.
Meanwhile, at a roundtable on improving NGO sustainability and serving the poor as part of the conference, the speakers suggested enhancement of public-private partnership and corporate responsibilities to ensure that the poorest of the poor come under quality health services.
They urged the government to ensure accountability of the doctors in the public healthcare centres.
The roundtable was organised jointly by the daily Prothom Alo and NSDP and moderated by Prothom Alo Joint Editor Abdul Qaiyum.
At another seminar in the afternoon, the speakers emphasised long-term training for the health providers to ensure quality services for safe motherhood. They also called for equipping clinics with more logistic supports to address obstetric complicacies.
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