What is it about?

Progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5a, reducing maternal deaths by 75% between 1990 and 2015, has been substantial; however, it has been too slow to hope for its achievement by 2015, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, including Uganda. This suggests that both the Government of Uganda and the international community are failing to comply with their right-to-health-related obligations towards the people of Uganda. This country case study explores some of the key issues raised when assessing national and international right-to-health-related obligations. We argue that to comply with their shared obligations, national and international actors will have to take steps to move forward together. The Government of Uganda should not expect additional international assistance if it does not live up to its own obligations; at the same time, the international community must provide assistance that is more reliable in the long run to create the ‘fiscal space’ that the Government of Uganda needs to increase recurrent expenditure for health – which is crucial to addressing maternal mortality. We propose that the ‘Roadmap on Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for AIDS, TB and Malaria Response in Africa’, adopted by the African Union in July 2012, should be seen as an invitation to the international community to conclude a global social contract for health.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

There is a need to strengthen domestic mobilisation of resources in developing countries so that these countries are able to achieve the target of allocating 15% of their budget to the health sector.

Perspectives

This article sets the stage to argue in favor of developing countries that there is a crucial need to mobilise resources domestically if these countries are to achieve universal health coverage.

Miss Laila Abdul Latif
Rachier & Amollo Advocates

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: A global social contract to reduce maternal mortality: the human rights arguments and the case of Uganda, Reproductive Health Matters, November 2013, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/s0968-8080(13)42736-2.
You can read the full text:

Read

Resources

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page