Human rights in the Horn of Africa: an index of child and maternal health

Abstract

Objective: To construct a territorial measure and classification of child and maternal health in the countries of the Horn of Africa based on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.

Method: The design of our index includes the variables child and maternal health defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to enable territorial ranking of the countries. For this purpose, we used Pena's distance method for 2017.

Results: The results indicate a relatively high territorial disparity in maternal health between the countries of the Horn of Africa according to the differing values of the SDGs variables of child and maternal health.

Conclusions: We propose a territorial classification in the countries of the Horn of Africa. We believe that the most striking differences between countries relate to basic variables of maternal health such as being attended by skilled health personnel.

Keywords: Africa; Child health; Derechos humanos; Desarrollo sostenible; Disparidades en el estado de la salud; Health status disparities; Human rights; Maternal health; Salud infantil; Salud materna; Sustainable development; África.