Own all US news!

The President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, has committed to lifting all financial barriers to emergency obstetric care and access to family planning, as part of a strategy to fight maternal mortality in the country.

President Compaoré expressed this commitment during a meeting with an Amnesty International delegation led by interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone, and following the publication of an Amnesty International report highlighting the barriers women face in Burkina Faso to receiving adequate health care during pregnancy and child birth.

"The lifting of financial barriers for emergency obstetric care, accompanied by improvements in the quality of care and family planning will significantly reduce the number of deaths and complications for women in child birth," said Claudio Cordone. "Every woman has the right to life and the right to health. No woman should die giving birth when her death could have been prevented."

The government of Burkina Faso has made significant efforts towards improving maternal health during the last decade and Amnesty International welcomes the openness and constructive engagement it has experienced from the government while working on this issue. Costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth have been significantly reduced in Burkina Faso but remain an obstacle for many women in the country.

Pregnant women’s lives in Burkina Faso can be endangered by the distance they have to travel to access adequate care, as well as corrupt practices by some medical personnel and lack of effective mechanisms to ensure monitoring and accountability. More than 2,000 women continue to die every year during pregnancy and childbirth.

"Ultimately, in order to fully address maternal death there is a need to tackle the various forms of discrimination against women which prevent them from taking part in decisions on family planning and accessing health care," said Claudio Cordone.

"Amnesty International will continue to work with civil society organizations, medical associations and government officials to address such discrimination and the poverty that fuels it."

The Amnesty International delegation also met Burkina Faso’s First Lady Chantal Compaoré, the President of the National Assembly, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the Prime Minister, Tertius Zongo, the Minister of Health, Seydou Bouda and the Minister for the Promotion of Human Rights, Salamata Sawadogo.

During these meetings, interim Secretary General Claudio Cordone shared the findings and recommendations of a two-year research project published in the report, Giving Life, Risking Death: Maternal Mortality in Burkina Faso.

The meetings with the authorities followed two weeks of discussions throughout the country with local communities, health professionals and local government officials. Amnesty International was able to take the testimonies of the people who suffer daily from the loss of their mothers, wives, and sisters to the authorities in the country.

"All the families we met told us that giving birth should be a joy, but that all too often it becomes an ordeal that no one should have to suffer," said Claudio Cordone.

During a meeting with international donors, Amnesty International urged them to continue their support for the Burkina Faso government with adequate, long-term and sustainable technical and financial assistance to ensure the availability and accessibility of emergency obstetric care.

Amnesty International also welcomed the adoption by the Burkina Faso National Assembly in December 2009 of a law implementing the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and called for an early abolition of death penalty.

Women are dying needlessly during pregnancy and childbirth because discrimination prevents them from accessing sexual and reproductive health services, leaving them unable to make key decisions on their pregnancies, Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.

Every year in Burkina Faso more than 2,000 women die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, according to government figures. Amnesty International’s report Giving Life, Risking Death finds that many of these deaths could have been easily prevented if women were given access on time to adequate health care.

"Every woman has the right to life and the right to adequate healthcare, and the government should redouble its efforts to address preventable maternal death," said Claudio Cordone, interim Secretary General of Amnesty International. "Women in Burkina Faso are trapped in a vicious cycle of discrimination which makes giving birth potentially lethal."  

Most women in Burkina Faso are subordinate to the men in their lives with little or no control over key decisions such as when to seek medical care and the timing and spacing of their pregnancies in spite of having equal status under Burkinabe law. Women and girls continue to be subjected to early marriages and female genital mutilation.

The Burkina Faso government, with the help of the donor community, has developed ambitious strategies that have lowered maternal death rates in some parts of the country. However these are undermined by failures in implementation and a lack of accountability that allows medical personnel to get away with abuses, such as illegal demands for payments.

Poverty is a key contributing factor in preventable maternal death, particularly for impoverished women living in rural areas who face both financial and geographical obstacles to accessing healthcare.

In 2006, the Burkinabe government introduced a policy to subsidize 80 per cent of the cost of childbirth and making it completely free for the most impoverished women. However this policy is not well publicised leaving it open to exploitation by corrupt medical staff. Criteria have not been elaborated to establish who qualifies for subsidized care so costs continue to act as a barrier in accessing medical care.

The Amnesty International report says that unequal access to adequate health facilities especially in rural areas; shortages of medical supplies and trained personnel and negative or discriminatory attitudes of health workers are also preventing women from seeking care.

"Maternal death is a tragedy that robs thousands of families of wives, mothers, sisters and daughters each year," said Claudio Cordone. "So long as women are not allowed control over their own bodies, they will continue to die in their thousands."

The authorities have responded to the report which was sent to them in advance by welcoming "the meticulous and important" work done by Amnesty International, while stressing that the cases of misbehaviour by medical personnel were "isolated" and reiterating the authorities’ commitment to address the problem of maternal mortality in the country.
    
Amnesty International has called on the government to expand and improve access to family planning services, to remove financial barriers to maternal healthcare services, to ensure an even distribution of health facilities and trained staff across the country and to set up a well-publicized and accessible accountability mechanism to help combat corruption and mismanagement.

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 177 out of 182 countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Human Development Report.

Between January 28 and February 9 a campaign caravan will tour Burkina Faso spreading news of Amnesty International’s campaign to end maternal mortality in the country and providing information to stimulate debate.

Between 10 and 13 February the interim Secretary General of Amnesty International will meet with the country’s top authorities to share the outcome of the caravan and discuss government plans to address maternal mortality.

The campaign to end maternal mortality in Burkina Faso is a part of Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign launched in May 2009.

In September 2009 Amnesty International launched a campaign to end maternal mortality and a campaign caravan in Sierra Leone.

Amnesty International believes poverty is a human rights issue and through the Demand Dignity campaign is calling for an end to the human rights violations that drive and deepen poverty.

The campaign mobilizes people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit http://demanddignity.amnesty.org/

In Burkina Faso, the health care system suffers from several recurrent problems: inadequate health infrastructure, shortages and interruptions of supplies of drugs and medical equipment, blood shortages, a lack of trained medical personnel and a lack of skilled birth attendants.

Health care facilities are often far from people’s homes, especially in rural areas, and transport is unreliable and expensive. Although the government has increased the number of community health centres in recent years, enormous disparities continue to exist between urban and rural areas.

Accountability is key in any health system. The government has to account for the implementation of its health policies. Patients are also entitled to hold accountable, medical personnel who might be responsible for abuses or misconduct, such as unlawful demands for unofficial payments, and must have access to avenues of redress. However, in Burkina Faso, accountability is rare, both at government and individual levels.

Women in Burkina Faso suffer discrimination in every area of their lives, with unequal access to education, health care and employment. Particularly in rural areas, women have little or no say in key domestic decisions. They are primarily valued as wives and mothers.

div align=justify
img src=http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Thematic/Dignity/burkina-faso-maternal-morta.jpg title=Ramatoulaye, 25 years old, with her 4 month old baby daughter, Burkina Faso, June 2009 alt=Ramatoulaye, 25 years old, with her 4 month old baby daughter, Burkina Faso, June 2009 height=304 width=204 class=asset-align-right/Maternal death can be prevented. About a year ago, Amnesty International Burkina Faso started to plan the campaign and was already thinking of having a caravan to tour the country. This caravan will leave Ouagadougou in three days after the Amnesty International report on maternal health is launched during a press conference in the capital. br /
br /
In each location, several activities will be organized by Amnestynbsp; International Burkina Faso together with partner organizations to mobilize women and men around the realization of their right to health. Forum theatre play will be shown, together with a film. In some places, sport events will be organized. In others, the report will be presented to medical students in regional nurse schools. It is also planned to hold meetings with regional authorities to start dialogue with them.br /
br /
While we are planning a long term campaign, we hope with the caravan to raise awareness about our work on maternal mortality, collect signatures and voices asking the government to continue its efforts to reduce maternal mortality and act as a vehicle for debate.br /
br /
From 27 January, follow the caravan on our website http//www.demanddignity.org. We are setting up a geoblog where you will be able to read and hear from us as we will post written and audio posts!br /
/div
div align=justify
nbsp;
/div
div align=justify
emImage: Ramatoulaye with her four-month-old baby daughter, Burkina Faso, June 2009. Copyright: Anna Kari/embr /
/div

div align=justify
img src=http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Thematic/Dignity/burkina-faso-idrissa-dicko-.jpg title=Idrissa Dicko who lost his young wife and baby in childbirth, Burkina Faso, june 2009 alt=Idrissa Dicko who lost his young wife and baby in childbirth, Burkina Faso, june 2009 height=304 width=204 class=asset-align-right/The story of Safiatou* is one the 50 cases that Amnesty Internationalrsquo;s researchers investigated in-depth. Safiatou died while trying to reach a health centre after delivering at home.br /
br /
Safiatou, 26, married her cousin Hamidou when she was 14 years old. They lived in a village about 100km south of Ouagadougou, where they farmed livestock. She already had four children when she became pregnant again in 2007.br /
br /
Safiatoursquo;s husband told Amnesty International: ldquo;The day of her delivery, she was in good health and worked all afternoon as usual without any problem. She prepared tocirc; [a local dish made from maize flour] for her children and went to get the hay for the animals. In the evening, when her labour began, she left for her motherrsquo;s home. Her mother came to warn me that she was not well, that we had to take her to the clinic. I do not have a motorcycle, so I had to go and get one. That made us lose time.rdquo; The husband added that he ldquo;did not know that she should have delivered at the clinic. When I came to fetch her at her motherrsquo;s house, she had lost consciousness.rdquo;br /
br /
The husband borrowed a small motorcycle from his neighbour, but it did not have any fuel and the closest gas station was 10km away. They had to first push the motorcycle for 10 kmhellip; Safiatou ended up delivering at home, but there was placenta retention and serious haemorrhaging.br /
br /
Her husband asked a friend to help him take Safiatou to the health center but she died on the motorcycle 4km away from the health centre. br /
br /
Safiatou left five boys, aged 11, nine, seven and four, and the newborn baby. br /
br /
* not real namebr /
br /
If you want to hear more on how Amnesty International will campaign so that women like Safiatou stop dying giving birth, watch this space tomorrow.
/div
div align=justify
nbsp;
/div
div align=justify
emPicture:nbsp; A man holding a picture of his wife who died in childbirth, Burkina Faso. Copyright Anna Kari/embr /
/div

img src=http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/imagecache/previewsize/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Thematic/Dignity/9_IMG_1841_ELANA_DALLAS-l473.jpg alt= title= /br/After Sierra Leone, Amnesty International will launch its report and campaign on maternal health in Burkina Faso. The report and the campaign on maternal health that will be launched in six days are the result of over two years work. br /
br /
Amnesty International went to Burkina Faso four times to conduct research in several cities including the capital, Ouagadougou, as well as Bobo-Dioulasso, Ouahigouya and Kaya. Amnesty International also visited a dozen rural areas throughout the country. Researchers investigated over 50 cases of women who died during pregnancy and childbirth.br /
br /
While the right to health is widely unfulfilled for pregnant women, maternal deaths are also an issue of gender discrimination. The low status of women in Burkina Faso is at the heart of the problem. Most women lack empowerment in nearly all the aspects of their lives, notably when it comes to choosing when and how many children they have. This is especially true in rural areas.br /
br /
Tomorrow, we will bring you a story of one of these women.br /