On 25 March 2012, during their meeting in Seoul, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra submitted Thailand’s commitments to the United Nations’ (UN) Every Woman, Every Child (EWEC) Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health to Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General. These commitments demonstrate the political will of the Royal Thai Government to fully cooperate with the UN in the reduction of maternal and child mortality rate, as well as the importance Thailand attaches to the promotion of women’s and children’s health in a sustainable manner.
In this connection, Thailand’s commitments focus on strengthening the maternal and child healthcare service system within the country. Thailand also pledged to increase the quality of antenatal care service countrywide to reduce maternal and child mortalities. It also aims to improve the breastfeeding rate from 26% to 60% and reduce the percentage of low birth weight babies from 8.7% to less than 7% of the total number of births by 2015 through the “Family Love Bonding Project” (“Sai-Yai-Rak Hang Krob Krua Project”) under the Patronage of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Thailand. In addition, the Government would support highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for all pregnant women suffering with HIV to reduce the transmission rate from 3.5 % to 1.5 % by 2015. In this regard, Thailand pledged to develop and implement a range of national policies that would strengthen its response to women’s and children’s health, including policies on national family planning and reproductive health services to reduce teenage pregnancy.
EWEC was initiated by the UN Secretary General in 2010 during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit to support the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. It aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children through the reduction of maternal and child mortality rate by 2015. In this connection, the UN Secretary-General has invited each UN member state to make pledges towards EWEC and, at present, more than 68 countries have done so.
For further information, please contact the Press Division, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tel.02-6435170, Fax.02-6435169, E-mail: div0704@mfa.go.th