The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA) promotes safe motherhood (SM) around the world. From 1st to 4th August, the First WRA Asia-Pacific Regional Conference was held in Bali, Indonesia. Over 350 participants, including JOICFP, from international agencies and 19 countries attended.

WRA's strategy is to strengthen alliances, exchange practical knowledge and information and advocate for behavior change to counteract maternal morbidity and mortality throughout the world.

Topics discussed at the conference included:

• SM in the MDGs, the need for linkage between family planning and SM
• The need for skilled birth attendants and community involvement
• Technical updates, including those on: antenatal and postpartum care, postpartum hemorrhage, breastfeeding, the use of vitamin A, the effects of HIV/AIDS, newborn care, emergency obstetric care, home-based life-saving skills, private midwifery, post abortion care, and malaria in pregnancy.

A special plenary session was held on "Maternal Health in Time of Crisis," with speakers from Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Indonesian province of Aceh speaking about the critical maternal health situation since the Asian tsunami in 2004.

Officials from India and Indonesia spoke about governmental roles in reproductive and maternal health, and the First Lady of East Timor, Kirsty Gusmao, spoke about her foundation activities to promote breastfeeding.

JOICFP's WRA activities

Hideyuki Takahashi, Director, Resource Development and Campaign, JOICFP, explained JOICFP's approach to SM advocacy for WRA, introducing fund raising activities, such as the collection of used stamps and prepaid cards, and he highlighted JOICFP’s WRA activities at EXPO 2005.

Takahashi next spoke about access and the more than 46,000 bicycles donated through MCCOBA/JOICFP to health workers in 86 developing countries, and how they save mothers' lives at grassroots.

Takahashi explains JOICFP's activities to help safe motherhood

He was followed by a representative of the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia who presented a case of a family planning outreach program and how it improved maternal health in communities. He also gave the view from Cambodia of the importance of Japanese assistance through the bicycles supply and technical support.

The two presentations were enthusiastically received in the light of program sustainability and building networks of supporters, and there were many questions about JOICFP’s approaches in gaining support in civil society, working with corporate social responsibility, and advocacy campaigns at events such as EXPO 2005.

Poster session and exhibition

JOICFP also held a poster session, explaining its WRA activities and outcome at EXPO 2005, and distributed leaflets that were used as campaign tools at the EXPO.

Looking at JOICFP's poster session on WRA activities

IEC materials that supported the event, such as the picture book "Pika-Pika", a RH/SM quiz, and a pregnancy simulator, were on show, and midwives and community health volunteers expressed keen interest in them.

Participants try on a pregnancy simulator

WRA Bali Declaration

Extracts from the Bali Declaration of the First Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting

1. Giving birth requires continuous, sustained and quality skilled care that should be provided through a comprehensive program of maternity care; therefore countries in the Asia-Pacific region underline the importance of achieving maternal health, gender equity, and the alleviation of poverty as contained in the MDGs.

2. The integrated approach towards safe motherhood does not only include the health of the mother during pregnancy, labor and the post partum period, but should also include the health of the newborn in the first month of life, and exclusive breastfeeding.

3. Strategies must be implemented to address gender disparities, raising women's status in communities and providing equal opportunities to promote gender equality.

4. Improving the nutritional and health status of young women should be a priority... Adolescent boys and girls should be provided with information, education and counseling to help them delay early marriage, premature sexual activity and first pregnancy.