The 15th ordinary session of the summit of the African Union /AU/ will be held in Kampala, Uganda from 19th to 27th July 2010, under the theme “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and development in Africa”. There are only five years to go before the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline. Nations around the world sign on to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by at least three quarters as soon as 2015 around the world under the MDGs. According to a report by UNICEF in sub-Saharan Africa there is a 1 in 16th chance of a woman dying during childbirth. Each year at least 1.16 million newborn babies die in sub-Saharan Africa. This region has the highest risk of newborn deaths and the slowest progress in reducing mortality. More than two thirds of these babies could be saved with low cost, low tech interventions, most of which are already in policy but do not reach the poor.

Maternal health and child mortality is described as a mother’s ability to eat healthy, to have access to safe reproductive strategies, to seek and have access to the appropriate medical services, and to get educated on how to ensure that their life and the life of their baby remains healthy.

Some of the factors that directly contribute to poor maternal health and high frequencies of child mortality are: '''Haemorrhage''', '''obstructed labour''', '''hypertensive''' disorders in pregnancy, unsafe abortion, birth-related disabilities, and nutritional deficiencies. At least 30% of women worldwide lack '''antenatal''' care with 34% originating from sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF). Highly infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS put both mothers and their infants at a greater risk of long-term sickness and early mortality.

Four effective intervention strategies that have played a significant part in improving maternal health and reducing child mortality have been identified. The most important intervention specified by organizations such as UNICEF is the availability of quality medical services pre- and post-birth. This includes better-trained traditional (i.e. midwife) and formal (i.e. doctor) health care providers and available emergency '''obstetrics'''. As well, improving maternal nutrition practices during and after pregnancy is a strong predictor of the quality of health a newborn baby or infant will have once they are born. In addition counselling for mothers with HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases (i.e. malaria) ensures that safer practices are utilized during mother-to-infant contact (i.e. breastfeeding). Finally, secondary education for girls has been shown to significantly increase the likelihood that mothers will have healthier pre-natal pregnancies and increase the survival rate of newly born babies.

Maternal and child health issues are the pressing challenges of the continent; hence the AU summit is timely and important in order to come up with feasible strategies and ways to address it. What matters most is what action and decision is to be made in is summit. As the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Advocate Bience Gawanas put it “the July summit should not just be an end in itself, but a means to an end. In other words, this summit will not aim for just another declaration. We are looking forward to an outcome that will make a real difference not just another commitment”. There are unfilled commitments and declarations that are not translated into practice. The Abuja Declaration in 2001, the AU member states had agreed to allocate 15% of their budget to health but after almost 10 years now only few countries are living as to their promises. Maternal and Child health are the most underfunded health programs. Expanding access to services, education needs nothing other than adequate allocation of resources.

We also need to appreciate the positive gains from existing interventions and by learning from the lesson there has to be a mechanism for effective scaling up. Reports indicate that despite continuing high child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, there has been significant progress in some countries thanks to increased immunization coverage, vitamin A supplementation, bed net distribution, and increased access to clean water. Eritrea's under-five mortality rate declined by 52% between 1990 and 2007. In Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Ethiopia child mortality rates have declined by more than 40% across the same period. Child mortality in Tanzania dropped by 24% between 2000 and 2004 thanks to scaled up investment in the public health system and the delivery of key child-survival interventions such as insecticide treated nets, vitamin A supplementation, immunization and exclusive breast feeding.