Saving Women's Lives: A Call to Rights-Based Action,

UNICEF,
published by UN Regional Office for South Asia, 2000. (International)

Chapters: 1. Why? Maternal Mortality in South Asia, 2. A Call to Action, 3. What? Strategies for Change, 4. How? Systems Approach to Service Delivery, 5. Progress? Measuring Change, 6. A Challenge: Sustaining Results.

This report is an effort to provide an insight to the rights of women in South Asia. It describes the efforts being taken to save women's lives through rights-based actions, actions that uphold every woman's right to survive pregnancy and childbirth, and provides a five-step process for achieving and sustaining a reduction of maternal mortality in the region. It gives an introduction to the magnitude and context of maternal mortality in the region, and goes on to envision a different future for women in the region. It then gives a brief review of the factors that contribute to the likelihood of maternal death, followed by a detailed list of strategies for change. The report then goes on to give a description of how to operationalise this initiative through a systems approach and processes for management of widespread change with stakeholders at the levels of national, provincial and state governments and donors; district management and hospitals; and individual men, women and communities. It then gives a presentation of the indicators that have been developed to drive change and measure progress, and goes on to give a discussion of sustaining the results through cultivation of ownership and institutionalization.

Key words: Women, Safe Motherhood, South Asia, Human Rights, Maternal Mortality, Pregnancy, Childbirth, Violence Against Women, and Cultural Practices