Asian countries' spending on child and maternal health is inadequate, bank says

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1854

Published 6 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1854
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1854

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Asian countries’ spending on child and maternal health is inadequate, bank says

Ben Bland

¹ Nusa Dua, Bali

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The current approach to reducing child and maternal mortalityin Asia is "failing too many people in too many places," saysa new report by the Asian Development Bank. It urges governmentsto increase spending and to rethink how they invest in healthcare.

Its study showed that 14 of the 43 countries in the region areunlikely to achieve the United Nations’ fourth millenniumdevelopment goal, which requires nations to cut the child mortalityratio by two thirds between 1990 and 2015.

The report argues that Asian governments need to increase spendingon maternal and child health care by at least another $5bn (£3.3bn; ${euro}$ 3.7bn) a year by 2010, then increasing to $10bn a year by 2015,if they are to make a "significant contribution" to achievingthe fourth goal and also the fifth goal, which calls for universalaccess to reproductive healthcare and a 75% reduction in maternal. . . [Full text of this article]