Khetam Malkawi, The Jordan Times

AMMAN — The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is committed to supporting the Jordanian government in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with a focus on woman’s health, gender equality and infant mortality, UNFPA Assistant Representative Muna Idris said.

“It is important for us to monitor the fourth goal on reducing the infant mortality rate, particularly in the case of Jordan where most mortalities take place in the neonatal period,” Idris told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

She explained that further reducing deaths during the neonatal period — the first month of life — is “very much” linked to the health of the mother during pregnancy.

“In order to reduce infant mortality further, there should be an added focus on the neonatal period and the mother’s health,” she explained.

In 2009, the Kingdom’s infant mortality rate was 23 deaths per 1,000 births, of which neonatal mortality was 15 per 1,000 births.

The MDG target is to decrease the total infant mortality rate to 17 deaths per 1,000 births by 2015.

Reducing child mortality is one of the eight MDGs to be met by all the world’s countries by 2015. The others are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving maternal health, combating diseases such as HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating global partnerships for development.

The MDGs are drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted during the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000.

A total of 191 states, including Jordan, have committed themselves to achieving these goals by the year 2015.

Another goal that the UNFPA is focusing on in Jordan is improving maternal health.

According to Idris, to achieve this goal, countries have to reduce their maternal mortality rate by two-thirds and achieve universal access to reproductive health services by 2015.

“At the global level, it is one of the most difficult goals to achieve,” Idris said.

In Jordan, she added, the situation has been good so far, since the mortality rate has come down from 48 deaths per 100,000  births in 1990 to 19 per 100,000 births in 2009.

As for the universal access to reproductive health, “the situation has improved in Jordan in the past year”, the UN official said.

One of the indicators used to measure universal access to reproductive health is the prevalence of contraceptives, “which showed an increase in use in the country from 40.2 per cent in 1990 to 59.3 per cent in 2009”, Idris said.  

She added that despite the improvement over these years since 2007, the increase has not been that significant. Similarly, Idris noted, the unmet need for family planning, which was 22 per cent in 1990, has been stagnant at around 11 per cent since 2002.

To address this challenge: “We have to be more focused on sub-national areas which are lagging behind the improvements seen at the national level,” she said.

In addition, related data should be always updated based on both surveys and routine records.