2007 Schokland Agreement

The Netherlands aim to achieve the millennium targets in 2015. On Saturday 30 June 2007, on the drained Zuider Zee polder island of Schokland, hundreds of companies, organisations, celebrities and less well-known Dutchmen signed the Schokland Agreement. It stipulates how they will make a concrete contribution to the realisation of one or more of the millennium development targets. The KNOV was also present.

The efforts of the KNOV are particularly aimed at millennium target 5, reducing female mortality rate due to pregnancy or delivery by:

• Support for and partnerships with obstetricians' organisations in development areas
• Sharing knowledge in conjunction with the Dutch training institutes for obstetricians
• Propagating medical-scientific knowledge for the international knowledge gateway
• Free advertisements for NGOs that recruit personnel for development areas

Organisations that help reduce the female mortality rate
Other organisation that support the fifth millennium target are: AMREF, Cordaid Memisa, KIT, Kinesis Pharma BV, Center for Human Emergence, Organon, GlaxoSmithKline, Bioconnection, International Confederation of midwives, NCDO, NVOG, DRC Medical, WHO, TI Pharma, TNO, IAVI, ShareNet, Malaria No More, Netherlands Society for Tropical Medicine & International Health and WPF/Mybody.

All the above organisations will urge the Minister for Development Cooperation and the State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport to play a leading political role in the realisation of millennium target 5 - this within an EU context, with the UN and other multi-lateral institutions. A policy document should be drafted for this.

At national levels, the female mortality rate could be reduced by:

• Enhanced expertise at Dutch embassies on sexual and reproductive health and healthcare systems
• Arranging for embassies to work on improving the healthcare system by financing of salaries and health workers
• Involving NGOs in improving the health system
• Supporting development strategies such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and Country Strategy Papers for millennium target 5 by the embassies
• Linking up with and facilitating coalitions in the field of safe motherhood

A report on a follow-up on the Schokland Agreement can be downloaded below.