The world has made substantial progress in reducing maternal and child mortality, but many countries are projected
to fall short of achieving their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 targets. The major objective of this
paper is to examine progress in Pakistan in reducing maternal and child mortality and malnutrition over the last
two decades. Data from recent national and international surveys suggest that Pakistan lags behind on all of its
MDGs related to maternal and child health and, for some indicators especially related to nutrition, the situation
has worsened from the baseline of 1990. Progress in addressing key social determinants such as poverty, female
education and empowerment has also been slow and unregulated population growth has further compromised
progress. There is a need to integrate the various different sectors and programmes to achieve the desired results
effectively and efficiently as many of the determinants and influencing factors are outside the health sector.