Top > Regional Affairs > Africa > TICAD > TICAD IV > Working Lunch hosted by Mrs. Kiyoko Fukuda, wife of Prime Minister (Outline)

The Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development

Dialogue with First Ladies of African Countries and International Organizations

A working luncheon hosted by Mrs. Kiyoko Fukuda,
Wife of Prime Minister of Japan

  • Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2008
  • Time: 12:00 pm - 14:30 pm
  • Venue: Silk Room, InterContinental Hotel Yokohama The Grand
  • Language: Japanese / English / French (simultaneous interpretation)
  • Topic: Maternal and Child Health in Africa

An active and constructive dialogue was held among some twenty First Spouses of African leaders and Heads of International Organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank and WFP, who shared the luncheon table at the occasion of TICAD IV. Mrs. Fukuda and participating Heads of UN Agencies, as well as the President of Liberia who visited the group during the open discussion session, gave key note remarks encouraging First Spouses to play an important role in advocating the cause of African women and children. During the session, a message was received from Mrs. Brown, the First Spouse of Great Britain, congratulating Mrs. Fukuda for hosting a working luncheon dedicated to the Maternal and Child Health in Africa. Participants found the working luncheon a very useful forum of discussion on the critical issue of the African Development.

Pre-luncheon session:

Mrs. Fukuda:

  • Japanese mothers receive the MCH Handbook from local governments such as the City of Yokohama when they become pregnant. In this Handbook, mothers can record their own health condition and that of their fetuses right up to birth, as well as the development of their babies afterwards.
  • About sixty years ago, Japan found itself in the midst of a chaotic period following the end of WWII. At a time of food shortages and poor sanitation, the MCH Handbook did much to protect maternal and fetal health, and to reduce Japan's infant mortality rate.
  • The Japanese government, in partnership with international organizations such as UNICEF, local health organizations and NGOs, has worked to promote the MCH Handbook in Indonesia and other Asian nations. In regions with low literacy or multiple languages, the Handbook uses pictures to serve a larger number of people.
  • At present, the government of Japan is promoting the Handbook as a passport of life in Palestine's West Bank, so that mothers and children can receive the appropriate checkups and treatment at different clinics, even if they are prevented from going back to their first clinic due to checkpoints.
  • I believe we are gathered today to protect the lives and health of women and children beyond the geographical distances as well as differences in tradition.
  • The MCH Handbook is a small idea which I was able to introduce to you today. We would like to present a number of ideas like this in the future, so that we can all exchange ideas and knowledge in order to work towards African development.

UNICEF:

  • UNICEF is working on Health, Education and Protection which are fields where First Spouses can play an important role.
  • The State of Africa's Children 2008, which will be launched later today, indicates that a number of countries made progress in health but progress is still weak in other countries due to conflicts and HIV/AIDS.
  • To promote health, First Spouses are encouraged to advocate for immunization, use of mosquito nets, ORS, nutrition including breast-feeding. These are measures which save the life of many children. Due to the recent food price increase, nutrition in general requires more attention as well.
  • For education, First Spouses are encouraged to advocate for Education for All, especially, education for girls. An educated girl will become a more knowledgeable mother, who in turn, promises better survival of their children.
  • In the area of Protection, First Spouses are encouraged to advocate against child labor, violence against children and some traditional but harmful practices such as female genital cutting (FGC) and early marriage. Broader gender-based issues should not be forgotten. Advancing the rights of women is required for better development of children.
  • I have met many of you and I know you can be strong advocates for health, education and protection in the continent.

UNFPA:

  • We are facing a tremendous challenge to improve the health of mothers and children.
  • As First Spouses, you have a critical role in promoting effective interventions and financing to save and improve the lives of African women and children.
  • No women should die giving life. They will survive if they have universal access to reproductive health, including skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric care and family planning.
  • In principle, these three interventions are simple but, in practice, they face implementation obstacles and fail to reach many people at the community level.
  • It is time to sustain and expand successful interventions to reach those in needs, to support initiatives to stop early marriage, early childbirth and other harmful practices, to keep adolescent girls in schools and to promote health-seeking behavior among young people.
  • It is also time to strengthen primary health care, to invest in strengthening health systems and to train and retain skilled health workers.
  • UNFPA will support you to advocate for women who are often forgotten in the development process. Working together we can to achieve MDG 4 and 5.

World Bank:

  • The fact that half of the maternal deaths occur in Africa is not acceptable. The leading causes of maternal and child mortality in Africa are pregnancies that are too early, or too frequent or even too late during life, as well as delays in transportation to health facilities and lack of appropriate services at such facilities.
  • A lot of partnership would be needed to deal with these issues and this is why I am very delighted that TICAD, which for the first time, is welcoming this kind of initiative that enables First Spouses to partner in focusing on this very important aspect of development of the African continent.
  • Strengthening national health systems and providing basic, cost-effective health services for mothers, newborns and children at all of the critical stages of life are essential.
  • World Bank is helping to strengthening health systems, focusing on infrastructure, with which health services can be effective delivered.
  • Better governance of resources and public expenditure in health and education will lead to better outcomes in these issues.
  • The leadership provided by First Spouses is a crucial component of our collective efforts in reducing maternal and child mortality.

WFP:

  • When children and women are in danger in the world, there is a "hotline" within the UN that begins to call each other and develop plans and actions. The dynamic group of First Spouses in this room also shows the power to write a new history in our countries and work together in partnership.
  • Women and children are most often the face of hunger and the face of famine in the world. Some 70% of women are also the face of food production in developing countries. History changes when women decide to make a difference.
  • In the field, I always first listen to a group of women because there is always wisdom coming out of them. The women always know the best solution to the problems and how to take care of the children.
  • We need to dream big and determine what is no longer acceptable. School meal costs only 25 cent, so no child should go to school hungry. To cover all hungry children, we now need 3 billion US dollars, up from 1.2 billion due to the soaring food prices. In comparison, the Christmas bonus at the Wall Street last year amounted to 36 billion. Therefore, the goal of providing school meals to all children in the world is not out of humanity's reach as long as we make it a priority.
  • We should at least ensure adequate nutrition for all under-two-year-olds in the world, because the brain development and the body development are locked-in at that age.
  • We need to be strategic in food-aid. For instance, WFP spent 80% of its cash for food purchasing from farmers in developing world-this is indeed a revolution in food-aid. Local procurement of food will help us eliminate the root causes of the problem by empowering small farmers, and this has a multiplier effect.

Open discussion:

Mali (Mrs. Toure L. Traore): Some progress has been made in the area of MCH and HIV/AIDS in recent years. Nevertheless, child and maternal mortality remains high in Africa, especially in Central and West including Mali. First Spouses of Africa within the framework of Vision 2010 have been working in collaboration with public institutions and local/national governments to reduce the high mortality among women and children by providing free-of-charge various services for MCH, such as emergency obstetrics care, preventive and curative malaria care and ARVs. UN Agencies have been quite supportive in this regard. I appeal to the Government of Japan to include this issue into the main agenda of G8 summit. It is also important to disseminate their decision to the media. Together with partners who have technological background, we must work to reduce the mortality of mother and children and I will commit to this end.

Liberia (President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf): MCH, the topic of this dialogue, is important to Liberia as the country has one of the worst statistics due to the years of conflict. With a great partnership with UN agencies, Liberia is promoting basic health care, economic growth and education in order to address poverty. TICAD, which represents a partnership between Japan and Africa, has begun to discuss how to unfold this partnership; how African states can ensure having a right economic policy and good governance in exchange of continued support to meet our own economic agenda. I encourage further collaborative efforts to make women participate at all level in society and to ensure women's welfare.

Lesotho (Mrs. Mathato Mosisili): How swiftly can we control new types of TB?

World Bank: TB has to be dealt with HIV/AIDS in an integrated manner. World Bank's regional laboratory also needs a more concerted approach. Health System Strengthening is important as well to reach TB victims.

Nigeria (Mrs. Patience Jonathan): What is the assistance development partners provide to deal with the high maternal and child mortality in Africa? Also, medical practitioners in developing countries are often left with impunity even if women die giving birth. Is it possible for developing partners to deal with the problem?

UNFPA: The reason of high maternal mortality is not that much related to medical negligence but to lack of services. Since governments cannot afford to provide services everywhere, how can we find ways to finance community level services? For example, demand in Nigeria is high. Thus, it is important that the First Spouses convince business communities to take more social responsibility. In Nigeria, there is a large business community. This is a good opportunity for developing new partnerships and improving funding.

UNICEF: Health System Strengthening is equally important to cope with lack of health care. Building community-based and integrated health systems is crucial to save both mothers and children. UNICEF also addresses the violence against women and children in this relation.

Burkina Faso (Mrs. Chantal Compaore): Appreciate the work done by UNICEF in reducing maternal and child mortality. Due to lack of funds, the country had stopped some reproductive health services. Yet, international organizations helped us plan the Vision 2010. Now, the government has a road map for mothers and children, and the situation has improved. However, it all cost, and problems such as lack of qualified doctors, especially in rural areas, and HIV/AIDS still remain. The government welcomes engaging in discussion on Vision 2010. But we also need to look beyond 2010; thus, to think about a Vision 2020.

WFP: With the current food prices crisis, mothers and children should be prioritized. I would like to hear from First Spouses the way to deal with malnutrition in their countries.

Lesotho (Mrs. Mathato Mosisili): With assistance from donors like World Vision, a cost-effective way of growing vegetable has been identified.

Burkina Faso (Mrs. Chantal Compaore): A variety of measures are being taken including School Feeding Programme of WFP and awareness campaigns targeting business sector. We are working to expand SFP to rural areas.

WFP: SFP is the most inexpensive human rights program. To make it more sustainable, we are encouraging home-grown school feedings. For example, SFP in Ghana uses locally produced food. We also find that the investments for SFP should be let by the finance ministers in the countries, because it really contributes to the GDP of a country if children can go to school. We are trying to make SFPs almost out of a "social-welfare mentality," and into a "GDP-growth-future-of-the-country mentality." Global dialogue should be enhanced to provide every child with a daily meal.

Mrs. Fukuda: Japanese children, including myself, benefited most from school feeding about 60 years ago when households could not ensure proper nutrition to their children due to poverty. Japan went through a challenging period with TB as well. Hope the symposium on TB to be held in Japan on 24 July will further address the issue. Finally, I wish that the MCH Handbook, which still contributes to promoting the health of mothers and children in Japan, would serve you as a good reference. In 2005, Japan expressed 5 billion US dollars assistance for 5 years in the field of health, and disbursed it according to the plan.

Back to Index