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Islamic Relief Niger: Interfaith dialogue on maternal and child health

Participants break away into smaller groups for dicussion

Last week, Islamic Relief (IR), in partnership with the World Council of Churches, organised a conference on maternal and child health in the Nigerien capital, Niamey.

The conference took place on January 26 and attendees included the Nigerien ministers for Health, Development and Religion as well as United Nations’ (UN) representatives.

The Prime Minister’s wife, Mme Mahmadou Danda Hadja Nana Baraka, attended the event and proposed the creation of a sustained reflection on how best to drive advocacy in favour of mothers and children.

Mamadou Fall, IR’s Niger representative, said, “We hope that by gathering different religious leaders, civil society and local authorities to share ideas, we will be able to identify gaps that need to be filled for Niger to improve maternal and child health by 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are due.”

In order to help reach these MDGs, attendees resolved to follow up with nine actions, including promoting maternal feeding, supporting education for girls and improving women’s attendance at health centres, as well as supplying these centres with the capacity and medicine that they require. The attendees also hoped that involving religious leaders in the fight against malnutrition would provide it with an extra boost.

Khardiata Lo N’Diaye, representative of the United Nations in Niger, also attended the session. She said, “The United Nations is very happy about this first initiative in Niger; it creates a positive context in which to develop peaceful dialogues and discussions amongst religious leaders."

The Millennium Development Goals are eight objectives set out by the United Nations that aim to vastly improve markers of poor living conditions, such as child and maternal mortality, access to education and water, gender equality and employment.

Niger has some of the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world and with two-thirds of the population survives on less than $1 a day.

The 2005 food crisis left more than 3 million Nigeriens short on food and killed thousands of people. In April 2010, 9 million people in Chad and Niger were at risk of malnutrition due to an extremely low rainfall.

More information about Islamic Relief's work in Niger