They were empowered to engage more actively in the fight against maternal, new born and child mortality in Cameroon.

Members of Parliament were on November 29, 2017 sensitized on combating infant mortality so as to gain their multi-faceted support and commitment. The seminar follows the disturbing statistics in Cameroon which indicate that maternal mortality rate has risen drastically from 430 per 100,000 live births in 1991 to 782 in 2011.

It is against this backdrop that the Ministry of Public Health through the National Program for Combating Maternal, Newborn and Child Mortality (PLMI) and its development partners, organized the meeting to empower the Lawmakers in order to instill short, mid and long-term commitments for improved results towards addressing the situation.

With the underlying objective of reducing deaths at live births, parliamentarians were presented with the ongoing strategies to fight the situation, the challenges and prospects for the near future.

In an opening remark from the Senior Deputy House Speaker, Hon Hilarion Etong, Parliamentarians cannot remain indifferent to deaths at birth given the representative role entrusted to them by the population. He stressed that ensuring the wellbeing of citizens and guarantee to good health is the responsibility of the government which of course should be the fundamental right of everybody. He called on all Parliamentarians to reflect and forward all the necessary dispositions that can change the current circumstances.  

The Minister of Public Health, André Mama Fouda, on his part, called on the MPs to be ambassadors and spearhead the massage of maternal health care. Going by him, Parliamentarians are closer to the population especially at the level of their different constituencies and should therefore use rally grounds and other get-together opportunities to encourage expectant mothers to respect medical procedures.