IDM-2010

Dear Leaders of Afghanistan,
On the occasion of International Day of Midwives (5th May), we congratulate you for your support for and contribution to the Midwives of Afghanistan. Because of your decisive leadership, more women now have access to basic primary health care services and newly trained midwives are saving the lives of thousands of women at the community level in remote provinces. This is a big change from just 5 years ago when women’s issues were neglected and women did not have the basic human rights.
However, we would like to point out several realities still plaguing the midwifery profession in Islamic Republic of Afghanistan:
Lack of voice and visible leadership in Public Health Ministry: Attention is drawn tocontinuing lack of voice and visible leadership in Afghanistan for midwifery profession.
Midwives being absent from decision making situations where others, predominantly doctors speaks ‘for’ them. This is the well known fact that midwives are the grass root implementers of the government’s initiatives for MDG 4, 5 and 6. Hence, they should be involved in decision making and policy level.