Maternal Mortality Ratio in Somalia

[Siciido]

asc wr wb dhamaan,

I hope that this message finds you all in a good health where ever you are in the world.

My message is about a topic that has been touched upon by a few members, namely the high and still rising Maternal Mortality Ratio in Somalia because of lack of interventions.
I, myself, am from Denmark and know of several NGOs and is a member of one that are all working to decrease the MMR in different regions of Somalia.
A part from their extraordinary work, I've always wondered if the outcome could be improved by coordinating all the NGOs work in Somalia.

What do you all think?
And do you know of any somali/non-somali NGOs that are trying to decrease the MMR in Somalia?

Best regards
Siciido, dk 

[TZmedstudent]

Ws Wr Wb Siciido,

I cannot say that I have worked in the NGO community that is providing the much needed healthcare in Somalia but I would like to applaud their efforts in filling the gap that had been left by the government.
However I feel that the only way to decrease MMR is to have a functioning ministry of health that is able to launch a coordinated response to tackle MMR. Different NGO's would have different mandates, interests and goals therefore making coordination difficult.
What I think is that more resources should be invested in the government and ministry to employ more personell in the health field and not forgetting a multi sectoral approach we'd need better infrastructure, roads, health facilities e.t.c tackling MMR requires everyone to be involved including the community.
 NGO's can assist in the efforts to decrease MMR but to significantly decrease it you'll need a strong functional local, regional and central government.

[Siciido]

Thank you for the reply.

I dont know if you're a somali of origin, but just in case, I wanted to let you know that Somalia is in a difiicult state right now after more than 20 years of civil war. So I personally think that it would be immoral to say that to achieve the best outcome, we must wait to build the country's infrastructure etc (If that is what you meant).

To achieve the goal, one of the ultimate interventions is peace, education and skilled birth attendants, which is why I believe it's of the upmost importance that we begin now by trying to provide Somalia with at least the education and other resources available.

Kind regards,
Siciido