Tag: millennium development goals

On 15th January 2015, the Bishop of Derby, the Rt Revd Alastair Redfern, took part in a question for short debate in the House of Lords, led by Baroness Hayman, on what progress has been made in reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in the developing world; and what plans they have to build on this work post-2015. The Bishop spoke of the situation in India, which has an ecumenical partnership with Derby Diocese, where one-third of global neonatal deaths occur. He noted that poverty, lack of education about basic hygine, attitudes towards women and girls and a lack of necessary infrastructure all contribute to high levels of maternal and neonatal mortality. He spoke of the grassroots responses to these conditions that he had observed in visits to India, and welcomed the partnership between DfID and development agencies such as Christian Aid, which work to channel funds to these effective local efforts.

The Lord Bishop of Derby: My Lords, I too congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, on securing this debate and on introducing it with such expertise and such a challenging sense of the statistics. Millennium development goals 4 and 5 are not being met and, as other speakers have said, the consequences are horrendous. My contribution will be from my own experience working with people at the grass roots, and I will then tease out what the implications of that experience should be.

I work in the diocese of Derby, in England, and we are twinned with the Church of North India, which extends from Calcutta to Mumbai—the whole of north India is twinned with our diocese in an ecumenical link. I work with people in a number of Indian communities where this issue is enormous. In 2012, one-third of global neonatal deaths happened in India. The highest rate of first-day mortality is in India. That is the context in which we are working with our partners, through whose eyes we discern some factors. Continue reading “Bishop of Derby: focus on grassroot responses to maternal mortality”