Meeting millennium development goals 3 and 5

Gender equality needs to be put on the African agenda A recent World Health Organization report warns that the health related millennium development goals (MDGs) will not be met without a dramatic increase in investments in national health systems.1 Assessments of progress towards the goals to date have found that we have made the least progress towards MDG 5—to improve maternal health—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In some African countries the situation has got worse; maternal mortality in Malawi has almost doubled between 1992 and 2000 despite increased resources for health.2 Women's lifetime risk of pregnancy related death in Malawi is now 1 in 7, compared with 1 in 2800 in industrialised countries.3 It is critical and timely to lobby for more resources, but this is insufficient without attention to the issues of gender and power which underlie maternal morbidity and mortality, both within communities and within health systems. Every minute, a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth.4 Nearly half of these deaths (47%) …