FROM THE FIELD
As global ministers gather today in Ethiopia to discuss how efforts to improve maternal health can be ramped up, Merlin is calling for urgent investment in midwives in crisis countries. Of all the global pledges to reduce poverty, Millennium Development Goal 5 â€" to cut maternal death by 75 per cent by 2015 â€" is the most off track. Yet while progress is painfully slow in the majority of countries, in crisis countries like Afghanistan and Sudan more women are dying in pregnancy and childbirth than ever before. Maternal health efforts failing in crisis countries
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Hear about Merlin's maternal health work in CAR on BBC World Service
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
