Supporting safe motherhood : a review of financial trends : full report

This study is designed to measure financial trends and new initiatives in support of the Safe Motherhood (SM) Initiative, identify issues of statistical methodology that may constrain the analysis, and establish a baseline for 1988 against which to measure future financial trends. Global support for specific safe motherhood activities is limited. Funding for selected safe motherhood activities is estimated to have increased (in current dollars) from $691.5 million in 1986 to $818.8 million in 1988. About half this amount was for so-called core activities, including family planning services. The magnitude of support for prevention of the complications of pregnancy is less certain. General health, population and nutrition sector flows increased substantially over the same period and estimated World Bank safe motherhood expenditures in 1989 are triple the previous year's total. New specific safe motherhood activities are beginning to emerge in the form of care for the complications of pregnancy, better secondary and tertiary facilities, training and promotional workshops. In conclusion, it is clear that policies to support maternal health are widely endorsed. However, the effectiveness of donor financing may require far greater attention to two special problems: (a) improving data on SM financial trends; and (b) strengthening recipient countries'capacity to activate project demand.