Mozambique is the 10th country with the greatest reduction in the maternal mortality rate in the period 2000-2020, according to a report released yesterday in Geneva by the World Health Organization (WHO)..

The report, prepared by the WHO on behalf of the United Nations Inter-Agency Group on Maternal Mortality Estimation - which also includes the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Bank and the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs - tracks maternal deaths on a national, regional and global scale from 2000 to 2020 and shows that there were around 287,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2020.

Mozambique, with 532 deaths in 2000 and 127 in 2020, recorded a drop of 76.1% in that period, followed by the Portuguese-speaking countries: Angola (73.9%, from 860 to 222), East Timor (73%, 750-204), Cape Verde (64.5%, 125-42), Equatorial Guinea (50.9%, 427-212), Guinea-Bissau (46%, 1.300-725) and São Tomé and Príncipe (17.6%, 179-146).

Only Brazil in the group of Portuguese-speaking countries recorded an increase in maternal mortality (5.4%, 68-72).

Belarus, with 24 deaths in 2000 and just one in 2020, tops the list with data from 185 countries with 95%.

Venezuela recorded 92 deaths in 2000 and in 2020 259 deaths were reported, so it closes the list with the worst percentage of maternal mortality with 182.8%.

The document, quoted by Lusa, explains that a maternal death is defined as a death due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth, occurring when a woman is pregnant or in the first six weeks after the end of pregnancy.