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Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, Speech to MPs on maternal health, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 14th March 2007

Thanks Sally [Keeble]. I’m very pleased to have this chance to speak to all of you – in what appears to be a really interesting set of visits and meetings. A wonderful initiative.

You know better than anyone else that women’s health is as much a political, as it is a technical issue. It’s the same here in the UK as it is in developing countries.

In late 19th century Britain, childbirth was a dangerous and painful experience - typically carried out in squalid conditions by untrained women - death rates were high.

Then 125 years ago a small group of pioneering women took on the political establishment. They overcame opposition to the pervasive belief that women couldn’t and shouldn’t become professional midwives. They help to establish the Royal College of Midwives in 1881 – now the oldest and largest midwifery college in the world - and in 1902 the Midwifes Act was enacted in parliament which put UK midwifery on a professional footing. That was politics working!

Almost 20 years ago, the Safe Motherhood Initiative was launched to address the same problems, but in developing countries, where over half a million mothers were dying each and every year – equivalent to the population of the entire city of Liverpool. Why? Because it’s not a priority for them to have a midwife, or to get proper care. And the women who suffer the most are the poorest. A woman in Sierra Leone is 600 times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy than a woman in the UK.

There is no greater symbol of discrimination against women than the continued deaths of women in childbirth when we have the knowledge – and the power – to prevent these deaths.

And action will help us in other areas too. A family without a mother is more likely to live in poverty and her children unable to attend school. A newborn whose mother has died has a much lower survival rate - over 4 million newborns die within their first month of life. We must ensure that women and their babies have the chance of life that they deserve.

Gender equality is not a complicated idea. It’s simple: women must have the same rights as men and discrimination has to stop.

So what do we – as politicians - need to do.

Well we are making some progress.

In 2006 where we agreed a new target for “universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health services” under the Maternal Mortality Millennium Development Goal. This means that access should be available to all who need it, and it means that governments will be held to account to provide it. I’m proud that the UK fought hard for this. That was politics working!

But delivering this goal, and the others, is going to take concerted action – from both developing countries and from the donor countries who support them.

We can help by supporting countries to develop good health plans – plans with clear priorities, plans that make health services more efficient and effective. And we can back these plans with money.

Our white paper committed us to spend half of our bilateral aid on basic services – including health.

It also committed us to give a stronger focus to “good governance” – not just good government - but more support to the role of political parties, parliament, judiciary, media and civil society – in building more capable, responsive and accountable states.

And part of this has got to mean better political representation of women. We’re not doing very well here in the UK, where around a fifth of MPs are women. But in Rwanda it’s a half! And in Rwanda, it’s female politicians who have led the way in pushing for increased spending in health and education.

That’s politics is making a difference. And it is elsewhere too.

In Honduras strong political commitment to women’s health helped cut maternal mortality by 40% over 5 years in the 1990s.

In Ghana the government abolished health user fees. As a result not only are more women using health services, more safe deliveries are happening for the poorest and least educated women, up by 15%.

In South Africa, political demand for changes in the abortion law led to a 91% reduction in deaths from unsafe abortion.

And in Pakistan the government are demonstrating their political commitment to improving women’s lives by taking forward a major maternal, newborn and child programme – we’re been pleased to fund it with £90 million.

But what more can we do – as politicians?

First and foremost we must recognise that “improving maternal health” is not only about technical solutions but is about gender, power and politics.

Secondly – as MPs – we need to ensure the rights of women are at the centre of what we do and in the plans we make.

Third - make women’s health an election issue. Listen to women’s needs – and their solutions. And get more women involved in the political process.

In October this year, the “Women Deliver” Conference – will mark 20 years of the Safe Motherhood Initiative. It’ll be held in London. It’s a real opportunity to get heads of state and other world leaders to recognise that not only do “Women Deliver” babies, but without healthy women our children, our families, our communities, and also our economy suffers.

Politics for me is about trying to change things for the better, so that we can hand on this world to our children in a better condition than when we found it.

So finally – we have got to keep doing more – as I’m sure you are doing - because we are not there yet.