Women’s eNews/ForbesWoman examines maternal health in Morocco. “By 2010, Morocco had decreased its maternal mortality ratio by over 60 percent since 1990, according to the Ministry of Health, with much of that drop in recent years,” the news service notes, adding that “between 1990 and 2008 it achieved an annualized decline of 6.3 percent, the fastest in the region with the exception for Iran’s 8.9 percent, according to a 2011 report by the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Population Fund.” The news service writes, “This progress means Morocco might meet U.N. Millennium Development Goal 5, which calls on nations to reduce maternal mortality by three-fourths between 1990 and 2015.”

The news service discusses several reasons for this progress, including contributions from the U.S. Peace Corps and a desire for smaller families in parts of the country. “To continue to encourage safe motherhood, Ministry of Health spokesperson [Abdelghani] Drhimeur said the government is creating new maternal health programs,” Women’s eNews/ForbesWoman adds (Bhatia, 7/23).