May 12, 2012
The global need for more qualified health-care personnel and more efficient health-care systems increases significantly with an aging and ever-growing population. Nurses are the face of health care for people in need.
Canada recognizes that nurses and midwives are important leaders worldwide, making health systems stronger and bringing services to local communities that need them most.
Every year, approximately 350,000 women die during pregnancy or giving birth, and up to 2 million newborns die during the first 24 hours of their lives. Tragically, most of these deaths are preventable. They happen because women, often among the poorest people in the world, lack access to trained medical staff and well-equipped health facilities.
Through the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, CIDA is training more health workers, including nurses, to provide these vital skills. In Tanzania, for example, Canada helps the government of Tanzania to recruit, retain, and train nurses in communities, improving people's access to health services.
Nurses continue to provide for the health of all people. Today, on International Nurses Day, also the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, CIDA acknowledges the important role nurses play in the health of people around the world.
Beverley J. Oda
Minister of International Cooperation
