The number, according to the Northern Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Alhassan Issahaku, was unacceptably high, for which reason he had tasked all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the region to prioritise maternal health care in order to prevent maternal deaths in their respective areas.

Mr Issahaku said this in his closing remarks at the launch of the 2016 Northern Regional League Table (DLT) in Tamale.

According to him, it was unacceptable that many expectant mothers in the region continued to lose their lives in the course of childbirth.

Deaths

He said more skilled delivery attendants were needed in the various MMDAs to ensure that the incidence of maternal deaths was reduced to the barest minimum.

According to him, maternal mortality could be improved in the region when proactive measures are put in place by the various MMDAs.

Alhaji Issahaku advised the MMDAs in the region to take advantage of the DLT to improve on key service delivery in their respective areas 

DLT

The DLT project, which is a joint project of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), seeks to assess, compare and measure the level of development of all the 216 MMDAs in the country in the provision and delivery of key public services.

The objective of the regional launch of the DLT was to bring the findings of the DLT close to the doorstep of the respective MMDAs to enable all stakeholders to familiarise themselves better with the objectives, processes and outcomes of the project.

Expert

Mr Prosper Ahialivor, a local government expert, said the DLT would provide a platform and impetus for assembly members, opinion leaders, chiefs and civil society organisations to ask questions on how their districts were faring.

He said the resulting awareness among the stakeholders and management of the MMDAs would generate healthy  competition and lead to improved service delivery.

Resources

The Northern Regional Programmes Manager of CDD-Ghana, Mr Paul Osei-Kuffour, called on the government to address the inequalities in resource allocation to the various MMDAs across the country.

According to him, some key services, such as improvement in maternal health care, education and sanitation, could be addressed if the inequalities in resource allocation were addressed.

He urged the various MMDAs to be innovative in generating their own internal funds (IGFs) to address the gaps in the inequalities in resource allocation.