Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 - One comment

Maternal health: To see, think and act beyond skin

To improve maternal health, we must see every woman first and foremost as a woman. Not as an African woman, a lower caste Indian woman, a discriminated Roma woman, a struggling Arab woman, or a “Third World” woman.

The major obstacle that we must overcome, if the Millennium goals are to be achieved, is for us to see, think, and above all act beyond skin. In other words, to have an overriding loyalty to Humanity first.

We must begin to see every woman as first and foremost a woman, if we are to truly commit ourselves to eradicating the intolerable fact that impoverished women in the Global South unnecessarily die whilst giving birth. They die because of a lack of access to qualified medical practitioners and effective medicines as well as safe abortion procedures.

To see, think and act beyond skin

We must not see this woman as a suffering black African woman, or a lower caste Indian woman, or a socially discriminated Roma woman, or a struggling Arab woman, in other words, a Third World woman that deserves our pity when our financial calculations and geopolitical interests permit. But first and foremost as a potential mother that deserves to carry her children and give birth in dignity.

As a human being that ought to have the right to terminate her pregnancy in a safe manner if she so chooses. Abortion services should be available and safe where it is legal. Guaranteeing these rights for all women is what I mean when I state that we must see, think, and above all act beyond skin.

This stance does not entail insensitivity to cultural differences. Respect for the differences between women continues to matter. But we must also acknowledge our manifold similarities. We must see, think, and act beyond skin; we must recognize that in our interdependent world, similarities must matter more and more.

The fallacy of exclusively tying skin to a specific part of the globe and culture would cause many to place someone of my hue, my skin color, in the Global South.

This is my philosophy

While part of my roots lie in the Caribbean, I was born and raised in the Netherlands, proudly represent the Dutch Parliament, and consider this, the European part of the West, my home. But this home of mine cannot and must not be seen as divorced from our wider collective home which is the globe.

As Europeans we must also always acknowledge that we are part of the human family. The recognition of global interdependence and elemental humanity—must be accompanied by a planetary responsibility for the downtrodden and the less fortunate in the Global South.

Specifically, we must care for Third World women who unnecessarily die while giving birth or undergoing unsafe abortion. This is my philosophy.

It is also the basis of the new approach of the Dutch government towards development aid, and in my estimation the founding idea behind the millennium goals.

Acting beyond skin – three steps

I would like to briefly elaborate on the three main areas in which the Dutch government are planning to concretize its philosophy of seeing, thinking, and acting beyond skin in relation to achieving Millennium goal 5 – improve maternal health.

In order to achieve the millennium goals Western governments must cooperate with business and the world of science. This is part of our new vision towards modernizing development aid in the twenty-first 21^st century.

1: Public-private cooperative ventures

Concretely, the Department for International Co-operation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has plans to start up and encourage public-private cooperative ventures. By this I mean collaborations between the Dutch government, NGOs, professional bodies, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies, in the areas of research, production, and distribution of medicines specifically geared to pregnant women in the Global South. In this endeavor, there are plans to work together with Dr. Monir Islam of the WHO department making pregnancy safer which is part of Family and Community Health.

The specific illness this private-public initiative will target in the production of medicines are:

• Haemorrhage
• Sepsis
• Eclampsia and pre-eclampsia
• Malaria
• HIV
• TB

These illnesses greatly contribute to female mortality during pregnancy and childbirth.

2: Capacity building

It is a nonnegotiable consensus that Development Aid must contribute towards the building of human capital in the Global South. One of the goals of Development Aid is about helping the Global South better help itself.

The Dutch government has plans to commit itself to investing in building up the capacity of qualified medical birth attendants in the Global South. There must be sufficient midwives, nurses, and doctors to assist especially the working poor during pregnancy. Ensuring skilled birth attendants has our priority. There must also be employment securities. for these personnel which ties into the third area we plan to invest in.

3: Human-centered and gender-centered development

Respect for the sovereignty of the nations of the Global South will remain our starting point. Yet for the Dutch government we believe that a function of development aid must also be to encourage Third World governments to invest in human-centered and gender-centered development.

In our aid to the Global South we will encourage recipient governments to tie the programs that we fund in the area of economic development to the social welfare of the poor; in the case of Millennium goal 5, the health and reproductive rights of women.

The way forward

What I have just enumerated are plans to concretise the Dutch government’s philosophy and policy of seeing, thinking, and acting beyond skin. And I truly support my government in these plans. They are not yet operational. Yet the question is not whether these plans will be implemented, for they will be. And it is up to us Parliamentarians to make sure our government will do so.

The question is whether our partners in the Global South and the Developed North,  Governments and Parliamentarians, have the courage and commitment to achieve Millennium goal five? In other words to effectively act beyond skin. Only by subscribing to an overriding loyalty to Humanity can we ensure that all women bare children in dignity and all women have the possibility of terminating their pregnancy without risking their lives.

The views expressed in this blog-post are solely those of the author.