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Reproductive, maternal and child health
Over 200 million women and couples worldwide do not use reliable family planning methods, although they would like to do so. Each year, this results in 80 million unwanted pregnancies and 42 million abortions, 20 million of which take place under unsafe conditions. Also, more than 350,000 women die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth every year. Of those who survive, many women and children do not have access to affordable and nutritious foods.
To address these and related challenges, German Development Cooperation supports the following approaches:
- Universal access to information about sexual and reproductive health and to reliable methods of contraception
- Rights-based family planning
- Pre- and postnatal care and assisted deliveries
- Treatment of sexually transmitted infections
- Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of such infections
- Promoting healthy life styles among young people
- School health programmes
- Ongoing training of staff
- Promoting better food security and nutrition, particularly for women and their children
Selected readings from the Healthy DEvelopments portal: Sexual and reproductive health and rights, maternal and newborn health
- Keeping women and girls at the center during COVID-19 (Press statement, 2020)
- Recent learnings on the integration of Family Planning in Universal Coverage schemes (Literature Review, 2018)
- Fighting discriminatory practices and ‘period poverty’ (InFocus, 2018)
- Learning from tragedy in a ‘no blame’ environment (Project Story, 2018)
- Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Population Dynamics (Policy Paper, BMZ, 2008)
- Progress Update BMZ Initiative on Rights-based Family Planning and Maternal Health (BMZ, October 2016)
- Progress report: Germany's contribution to the G8 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (BMZ, 2017)
- Coming of age - Fifteen years of the Join-In Circuit on AIDS, Love and Sexuality (Case Study, GHPC, 2015)
- Social Marketing in Cote d’Ivoire: Working for sexual and reproductive health and rights in a country affected by civil war (Case Study, GHPC, 2015)
- Vouchers: helping Kenya’s poorest women (Case Study, GHPC, 2012)
- Making childbirth a village affair: How ‘Desa Siaga’ improves the health of mothers and babies in Indonesia (Case Study, GHPC, 2011)
- 'Aunties' for sexual health and non-violence: How unwed young mothers become advocates, teachers and counsellors in Cameroon (Case Study, GHPC, 2011)
- The monthly exile: Making life better for menstruating girls and women (In Focus article, 2016)
- Implementing the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist in Pakistan (In Focus article, 2016)
- A boost to sexual health and rights for a new generation (In Focus article, 2015)
- Training multidisciplinary medical teams in emergency obstetric care (In Focus article, 2015)
- Minding the Gap: Adolescents’ access to sexual health treatment, care and support in Malawi (In Focus article, 2015)
- No Baby Left Out: A Tanzanian initiative leads the way towards improved health and survival rates for newborn babies (In Focus article, 2014)
- Towards better maternal and newborn care in rural Vietnam (Project story, Healthy DEvelopments, 2015)
- Bangladesh’s rapid urbanisation challenges cities’ health services (Project story, Healthy DEvelopments, 2015)
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Fact sheet: Health Worker Dialogues - Enhancing cooperation between different health worker cadres pdf 788 KB - Link opens in a new window
pdf | 788 KB | accessible - In focus article: Ensuring mothers’ and babies’ health in Tanzania
Selected readings from the Healthy DEvelopments portal: Child health
- Keeping children 'Fit for School': Simple, scalable and sustainable school health in the Philippines. (Case Study, GHPC, 2012)
- Achieving more together: A public private partnership to support children with heart diseases in Bolivia. (In focus article, 2015)
Selected readings from the Healthy DEvelopments portal: Nutrition
- Strong Cooperation for Better Food Security and Nutrition! (Fact Sheet, BMZ, 2013)
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Supplementation, Food Fortification and Dietary Diversification: A three-pronged approach to reducing hidden hunger (Fact Sheet, BMZ, 2012) pdf 296 KB - Link opens in a new window
pdf | 296 KB | accessible | German - Building Alliances for Better Nutrition (Case Study, GHPC, 2014)
- The impact of cash transfers on nutrition in emergency and transitional contexts (Evidence review, ODI/BMZ, 2012) - external link, new window
Reproductive, maternal and child health and nutrition on other German Development Cooperation websites
- BMZ: Sexual and reproductive health and rights
- BMZ: Special Feature on Hunger
- GIZ: Sexual and reproductive health and rights - external link, new window
- GIZ: Maternal and child health - external link, new window
- GIZ: Young people’s health - external link, new window
- GIZ: Food and nutrition security, enhanced resilience - external link, new window
- GIZ: Affordable nutritious food for women (ANF4W) - external link, new window
- KfW: Reproductive health - external link, new window
Videos
- Training midwifes in Cameroon (15 minute-video, GIZ-PASaR, 2015)
- Promoting Family Planning in rural Cameroon (15 minute-video, GIZ-PASaR, 2015)
- Boosting prevention: The Join In-Circuit on AIDS, Love and Sexuality (7 minute-video, GIZ Zambia, 2013) - external link, new window
- Kadi - Saving Mothers and Babies, One Voucher at a Time (Seven 5 minute-videos, Gobee Group Plus, 2012) - external link, new window
- Ready to bring and take care. The Desa Siaga approach to maternal and newborn health in Indonesia (27 minute-video, GIZ Indonesia, 2011) - external link, new window
