With the theme “Maternal infant and child health and the development of Africa” the forth coming 15^th Afican Union (AU) summit scheduled for 25^th to 27^th July in Kampala Uganda is meant to find solutions to reduce on the high maternal deaths in Africa. Uganda has been chosen as the host for the 15^th African Union summit because of her effort and contribution towards the fight for peace and stability on the continent. Uganda sent troops to Somalia to contribute to the peace in that region and she a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Prior to the summit, an African Youth forum with the theme “Maternal Infant and Child health: African Youth call for Action” will be held at the Imperial botanical beach hotel in Entebbe from 17^th to 19^th July 2010. This is a very good initiative by the African governments to involve young people in matters that will affect their future.

Uganda, like many African nations has limited resources in terms of man power and health facilities to enable her provide quality health services for mothers, infants and children. According to the report by Population Action International which based its figures from the Uganda National Health Policy, “supplies and medicines may either be unavailable where they are affordable or unaffordable where they are available”. This prevents low-income women from accessing basic medicines due to the high cost of purchasing drugs from private pharmacies. Worldwide over 350,000 women die due to preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth. The main causes are bleeding, infections, abortions and obstructed labour among others. The majority of women who die during or as a result of child birth are low-income earners from marginalized groups. Despite advancement and availability of technology interventions to save mothers and babies, maternal deaths have continued with 99% of deaths in developing countries of Africa and Asia.

As the African heads of state and leaders meet in this 15^th AU summit, it is important for them to focus on issues of violence, human rights, education and poverty which are some of the key underlying causes of maternal and infant mortality.  They must also not forget to intensively discuss the role Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play in preventing mortality and come up with feasible solutions on how different governments can tap into this potential of ICTs. With an increasing range of devices for communicating and disseminating information, Mobile and electronic health applications are very powerful tools in solving a number of health related problems.  These include; sharing information on health related issues, monitoring treatment of patients as well as monitoring health workers.  Given the fact that mobile phones cut across literacy levels and have been adopted by many women in rural areas all over Africa, it is important for the African governments to invest in mobile technology and e-health Applications.

The Ugandan ministry of health should partner with Organisations/ institutions like Text-to-change, Mobile Monday Kampala, Faculty of CIT at MUK, SMS media, UNICEF  and Women of Uganda Network(WOUGNET)  through her SMS campaigns to tap into the potential of mobile and electronic application as a starting point in solving the problem of high maternal deaths.

If the Millenium development Goal of reducing deaths for newborns and children is to be achieved within the remaining five years, our leaders have to “WALK THE TALK” in the upcoming government leaders meetings like the African Union (AU)- July in Kampala and the G8 summit-September in Canada.

The writer is a trained Citizen journalist and an Information Officer with Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)