Accomplishment of the millennium development goal on maternal health in Colombia

Abstract

In 2000, Colombia endorsed the United Nations Millennium Declaration in which 189 member States agreed to comply with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are supported by the principles of equity, equality and humanization as building blocks for human development, the latter being both a goal and a means of State policy. Regarding MDG No. 5-"Improve maternal health"-which established the universal goal of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015, Colombia set the target of reducing the ratio down to 45 maternal deaths for every 100 000 live births, using as a basis the recorded rate for 1998 (1).