The most recent estimates of maternal mortality
developed by the World Health Organization
(WHO), the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) and The World Bank in
collaboration with scientists from academia,
show that at least half a million women
have died due to pregnancy-related causes
in 2005 (WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA/The World
Bank, 2007). The estimates for the first time
analysed the changes in maternal deaths between
1990 and 2005, demonstrating slow
and uneven progress towards achievement of
the first target (to reduce maternal mortality
ratio by three quarters, between 1990 and
2015) of the fifth Millennium Development
Goal (MDG). Overall, the global decline in
maternal mortality ratio was 5.4%, and the
annual decline was less than 1%. It is estimated
that an annual decline of 5.5% in global
maternal mortality ratios between 1990
and 2015 is required to achieve the target.
Important gains have been made in some
world regions such as Eastern Asia where
the highest annual decline was seen (4.2%),
and Northern Africa (3.0%), South-Eastern
Asia (2.6%) and Latin America and the Caribbean
(2.0%). However, maternal mortality
ratio declined annually on an average of only
0.1% in sub-Saharan Africa between 1990
and 2005.