IMPACT OF MATERNAL MORTALITY ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE SELECTED WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7251/ACE1931051AKeywords:
maternal mortality, sustainable development, cross sectional dependence, West Africa, femaleAbstract
Over half a million females die every year as a result of pregnancy and birth complications. The vast majority of these fatalities can be avoided. SDG 3.1’s objective is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio by 2030 to below 70 per 100,000 live births. Despite a number of policies put in place maternal mortality in Africa remains unacceptably high. This study investigates the impact of maternal mortality on sustainable development in 9 selected West African countries for the period from 1990 to 2015. Data used were adjusted net savings, maternal mortality, consumer price index, per-capita income and financial development. The second-generation econometric methods were employed: cross sectional dependence, slope homogeneity, Westerlund cointegration, Eberhadt and Teal AMG regression, and the Emirmahmutoglu and Kose bootstrap Granger causality test. Findings confirm the following: First, cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity exist among the West African countries. Second, there is a long run relationship between maternal mortality and sustainable development. Third, maternal mortality impacted negatively and significantly on sustainable development. Fourth, the direction of causality varies across countries between maternal mortality and sustainable development. Lastly, causality runs from maternal mortality to sustainable development when analyzing the causal relationship among all countries. The findings suggest that the West African government needs to commit more funding to the health care sector and ensure access to free healthcare service to pregnant women or at low cost with quality and effective health care services if the countries must attain sustainable development by 2030.
References
Baltagi, B. H., Feng, Q. & Kao, C. (2012). A Lagrange Multiplier test for cross-sectional dependence in a fixed effects panel data model. Journal of Econometrics, 170(1), 164-177. doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2012.04.004
Bhalotra, S. R., Clarke, D., Gomes, J. & Venkataramani, A. (2018). Maternal mortality and women’s political participation. doi.org/10.1101/19000570
Breusch, T. S., & Pagan, A. R. (1980). The Lagrange multiplier test and its applications to model specification in econometrics. The review of economic studies, 47(1), 239-253. doi.org/10.2307/2297111
Eberhardt, M., & Teal, F. (2011). Econometrics for Grumblers: A New Look at the Literature on Cross-Country Growth Empirics. Journal of Economic Surveys, 25(1), 109–155. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6419.2010.00624.x
Emirmahmutoglu, F., & Kose, N. (2011). Testing for Granger causality in heterogeneous mixed panels. Economic Modelling, 28(3), 870-876. doi.org/10.1016/j.econmod.2010.10.018
Faridah, P., Arifin, M.S. & Abdol, S.W. (2015). Determinants of sustainable development in Malaysia: A VECM approach of short-run and long-run relationships. American Journal of Economics. 5(2); 269-277. doi:10.5923/c.economics.201501.35
Fisher, A. G. (1932). Fundamental presupposition for successful economic planning. Economic Record, 8(3), 88-98. doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1932.tb00737.x
Garenne, M. (2015). Maternal mortality in Africa: investigating more, acting more. The Lancet Global Health, 3(7), e346-e347. doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(15)00027-3
McArthur, J. W., Rasmussen, K., & Yamey, G. (2018). How many lives are at stake? Assessing 2030 sustainable development goal trajectories for maternal and child health. Bmj, 360, k373. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k373
Olonade, O., Olawande, T. I., Alabi, O. J. & Imhonopi, D. (2019). Maternal Mortality and Maternal Health Care in Nigeria: Implications for Socio-Economic Development. Journal of Medical Sciences 7(5): 849-855. doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2019.041
Panel, A. P. (2010). Maternal Health. Investing in the Lifeline of Healthy Societies and Economies. Policy Brief, Africa Progress Panel, Geneva, Switzerland. https://www.who.int/pmnch/topics/maternal/app_maternal_health_english.pdf
Pesaran, M. H., & Yamagata, T. (2008). Testing slope homogeneity in large panels. Journal of econometrics, 142(1), 50-93. doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.010
Piane, G. M. (2019). Maternal Mortality in Nigeria: A Literature Review. World Medical & Health Policy, 11(1), 83-94. doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.291
Say, L., Chou, D., Gemmill, A., Tunçalp, Ö., Moller, A. B., Daniels, J., ... & Alkema, L. (2014). Global causes of maternal death: a WHO systematic analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 2(6), e323-e333. doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(14)70227-x
Seyoum, M., Wu, R., & Lin, J. (2014). Foreign direct investment and trade openness in Sub‐Saharan economies: A panel data granger causality analysis. South African journal of economics, 82(3), 402-421. doi.org/10.1111/saje.12022
Swamy, P. A. (1970). Efficient inference in a random coefficient regression model. Econometrica: Journal of the Econometric Society, 311-323. doi.org/10.2307/1913012
Toda, H. Y., & Yamamoto, T. (1995). Statistical inference in vector autoregressions with possibly integrated processes. Journal of econometrics, 66(1-2), 225-250. doi.org/10.1016/0304-4076(94)01616-8
Westerlund, J. (2007). Testing for error correction in panel data. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and statistics, 69(6), 709-748. doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2007.00477.x
WHO Fact Sheet (2018). Maternal mortality https://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/maternal-mortality.
World Bank, W. (1997). Expanding the Measure of Wealth: indicators of environmentally sustainable development. doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-3956-7
