Maternal health in rural Zambia: challenges in the age of globalization

Abstract

In September 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals to encourage collective action toward reducing global poverty. The global community was unable to accomplish these goals by the 2015 deadline largely due to disparities in progress between the developed and developing worlds. The finish line has since been pushed and the number of targets has been expanded with the ratification of the Sustainable Development Goals, causing many to question whether the new development agenda is too idealistic to be achieved. This analytical case study of the Republic of Zambia’s experience with Millennium Development Goal 5, improving maternal health, aims to address these concerns by determining if the failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals was a product of ineffective policy or rather indicative of a much larger problem. An examination of the statistical outcomes of the Millennium Development Goal Five policies in Zambia demonstrates that they were effective but unable to create sustainable improvements in maternal health in rural areas. Further examination of the barriers to maternal health access in rural Zambia provided evidence that this problem is a byproduct of early imperialism that has since been maintained by the economic interests of a globalized world. Consequently, it is unlikely that the goals of the new sustainable development agenda can be achieved in a world still dominated by imperial economic interests.