World Health Report 2005 (The)

This year’s 16-page World Health Report offers an overview on progress toward maternal, newborn, and child health care in respect to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The report describes the health of mothers and children as "core" in the struggle against poverty and inequality. The report identifies exclusion as a key feature of inequity as well as a key constraint to progress.

According to this report, in many countries, universal access to care all women and children are entitled to is still far from realisation. The report looks at this sporadic progress to-date and sets out strategies that work toward accelerated improvements. The report states "it is necessary to refocus the technical strategies developed within maternal and child health programmes, and to put more emphasis on the importance of the often overlooked health problems of newborns."

There is a decade left to achieve the MDGs which set internationally agreed development aspirations for the world’s population to be met by 2015.

Copies of this report can be ordered from: bookorders@who.int