The British High Commission Dhaka co-hosted a roundtable with the Government of Bangladesh and other development partners to discuss how to step up efforts to stop preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children in Bangladesh.    

Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), attended the roundtable as the chief guest alongside Matt Cannell, Development Director of the British High Commission, Dhaka recently.

This includes working on quality, affordable health services and also addressing underlying issues, such as poor nutrition.

Matt Cannell, British High Commission Dhaka’s Development Director, said, “The UK has a strong and vibrant partnership with the Government of Bangladesh in a range of areas, including diplomacy, trade and development. I am pleased to say we are increasing our work to help end preventable deaths of mothers and newborn children in eleven countries around the world, including here in Bangladesh.”  

 “The Government of Bangladesh has made huge progress on development over the last twenty years.  I would like to particularly applaud the work of newly trained midwives in improving maternal and newborn health care.”

Chris Carter, Head of Human Development Department of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the UK, said,  “Bangladesh is rightly applauded for its family planning and immunisation programmes, and the government’s commitment to driving down maternal and child deaths, such as the Bangladesh Every Newborn Action Plan. We hope to do more to help build on these efforts. It has been incredible to see the beginning of another Bangladesh success story to develop a new icddr.b alternative formula for Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).”

The roundtable included an initial consultation about how to tackle the remaining issues that cause preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children in Bangladesh.