Joyce Banda and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Confronting the Neglect of Maternal Health and Women's Rights in Malawi and Liberia

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the majority of maternal deaths in the world. The death of girls and women during childbirth as a result of pregnancy-related complications, or maternal deaths is termed unwanted or avoidable deaths due to the fact that we have the medical expertise to deal with them. A major factor that pushes up maternal deaths is the absence of or the poor state of sexual and reproductive health rights and services (SRHRS). Gender inequality, women's lower social, political and economic status are recognised as contributing significantly to the neglect of universal access to and provision of reproductive health services for women. Africa as a continent has identified maternal deaths as a health policy priority. Reversing the trend has been dependent on a number of variables, not least country level attention to women's health. In this article I place the spotlight on two examples of leaders who as women used the positional power of office as head of state to address the neglect of rural women's health and access to services. Presidents Joyce Banda and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf introduced measures and committed government resources to maternal health services delivery to bring down the high number of maternal deaths of women in their respective countries, Malawi and Liberia. These measures offered women maternal care and a safe environment in which to give birth. The different initiatives taken by two presidential leaders to reduce maternal mortality are profiled against the growing pressure on Africa's nations to take action to provide universal access to sexual and reproductive health services to women and girls.