Millennium Development Goal on Maternal Health in Bangladesh

The main objective of the study is to provide an assessment of the feasibility of achieving MDG 5 of improving maternal health in Bangladesh. The study has found that there exists a considerable gap between the current and required rates of progress towards achieving the targets. The existence of such a gap poses a question about the feasibility of reaching MDG Five targets on time. The study has also identified notable variations among the six administrative regions of Bangladesh in terms of the rates of progress towards the targets. For efficiency of analysis, only two of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh have been chosen in this study. These two divisions are Rajshahi and Sylhet, which exhibit the two extremes of maternal health and its indicators in the country. By using the BDHS 2004 data the study has analysed the factors influencing three indicators of maternal health, namely skilled attendance during delivery, age at marriage and total fertility rate.

Autorentext

Sanzida Akhter studied International Development in Australia. She teaches in Department of Women and Gender Studies in Dhaka University, Bangladesh. The key area of her research interest is reproductive health, gender and development. At present, she is doing her doctoral study on health care seeking behavior of women. email sanzida209@yahoo.com