G-8 leaders pledge $5 billion to reduce maternal mortality

HUNTSVILLE, Canada, June 26 Kyodo -
Leaders from the Group of Eight major powers agreed Friday to pledge a total of
$5 billion over the next five years to help reduce maternal and infant
mortality rates in developing countries, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
said.
On the first day of the summit, the leaders also agreed in this small Canadian
resort town in the Muskoka region that the recovery from the 2008 global
economic crisis is taking place faster than anticipated, but that risks such as
high unemployment rates remain in many countries, according to a Japanese
official.
The official said leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States agreed that promoting fiscal consolidation is
important for ensuring future growth.
Harper, chair of the two-day summit, said at a news conference that a
contribution amounting to $7.3 billion so far has been committed under the
so-called Muskoka Initiative to improve maternal and newborn health.
In addition to the $5 billion pledged by world leaders, $2.3 billion will come
from foundations and non-G-8 countries, including Norway, South Korea and
Spain, Harper said.
Canada will contribute about $1 billion over the next five years for the
initiative, while Japan will commit up to $500 million for the same period.
The official said the leaders devoted their working lunch session almost
entirely to discussing economic issues.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who assumed office earlier this month,
explained the country's latest fiscal reform and growth plans endorsed recently
by his Cabinet to his counterparts during the session, the official said.
''I think the leaders have shared the view that promoting sound public finances
is important and that will contribute to ensuring sustainable growth as long as
the timing of it is not mishandled,'' said the official on condition of
anonymity.
The leaders also concurred that pushing forward with free trade and a range of
structural reforms is vital for maintaining the momentum of recovery, the
official said.
They held outreach sessions with a total of nine leaders from Africa and Latin
America in the afternoon to discuss major development issues.
The G-8 leaders exchanged views on how to reduce maternal and infant mortality
rates in developing countries with those invited, including the leaders of
Algeria, Colombia, Haiti, Nigeria and South Africa.
Reducing mortality among children aged under 5 by two-thirds and pregnant women
by three-quarters by 2015 is part of the eight-point set of U.N. Millennium
Development Goals, adopted by world leaders in 2000.
While the chances of meeting the goals by the deadline are fading, the United
Nations is planning to hold a summit on the MDGs in September.
The G-8 leaders are trying to increase momentum prior to the U.N. meeting by
demonstrating their leadership in improving maternal and infant health, as
progress is particularly lagging in this area of the development goals.
Every year, an estimated 500,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth, and
nearly 9 million children die before they turn 5, especially in Africa,
although many of the causes are preventable.
Nongovernmental organizations were disappointed over the latest amount of money
pledged by the G-8 countries.
''The G-8 as a whole has barely registered in this initiative totaling $5
billion, leaving millions of children in the cold with an underfunded Muskoka
Initiative,'' World Vision, an NGO dedicated to child health, said in a
statement.
Harper admitted that the budgetary constraints that many G-8 countries have had
following the economic crisis prevented the initiative from becoming too
generous.
''My observation has been that leaders have actually been very, very cautious
in terms of the pledges they have made,'' Harper said. ''I don't think you will
again see leaders go out and make pledges that they don't intend to keep or
that they really haven't thought about very thoroughly.''
He said, ''What would be incumbent upon us would be to take the focus of
accountability simply beyond the issue of dollars'' and ensure that the money
is well used and leads to a significant improvement in maternal and infant
health conditions.
During their working dinner, the eight leaders held discussions on pursuing an
ideal way to foster cooperation with emerging powers such as Brazil, China and
India, according to Japanese officials.
Kan said he thinks the G-8 is still a helpful framework for facilitating
communication between advanced countries when there are pressing issues, such
as the recent debt crisis in Europe, the officials said.
But he also said the G-8 needs to work more closely with emerging countries and
proposed that it may be worth considering inviting China to their forum in some
cases, to ''help make China more responsible'' in the international community,
the officials quoted the prime minister as saying at the dinner.
On Saturday, the G-8 leaders will discuss international security and peace
before wrapping up their two-day meeting.
This year's joint statement will be much shorter, largely because most of the
leaders' discussions on the economy will be treated as unofficial and omitted,
according to G-8 officials.
Following the G-8 gathering, a summit of the larger Group of 20 major
industrialized and emerging countries will begin in Toronto on Saturday
evening, at which leaders will mostly discuss financial issues.
==Kyodo