Maternal mortality is a global tragedy. Annually, more than half a million women die needlessly in the agony of childbirth, 99 per cent in the developing world. The risk of a woman dying as a result of pregnancy or delivery during her lifetime is about one in 26 in Africa, compared with about one in 11.000 in Western Europe. For every woman who dies, about 20 more are injured or disabled. The tragedy is that almost all of these deaths are preventable. However, Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 – improving maternal health – is the one MDG goal towards which the least progress has been made.

Improving maternal health is a key to reaching the MDGs. Therefore, the EU-funded campaign “Save Women’s Lives” was started in four European countries (Germany, Hungary, Malta, and the Netherlands) to increase public awareness and influence public opinion on maternal health and its relation to poverty eradication, as well as on maternal mortality and safe motherhood in developing countries with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

The overall objective of the campaign is to contribute to poverty reduction by promoting MDG 5 and enhancing support for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) as reconfirmed by the EU at the UN Summit of September 2005. Furthermore it aims to contribute to ensuring that the development policies and budgets of the EU and the four project countries reflect the recommendations of the ICPD. Core element of the campaign is Mother’s Night, a special night before Mother’s Day.

The campaign partners try to mobilise other partners and, looking at the flags, this has been quite successful. Even outside the European Union the concept of Mother's Night has gained recognition. Recently, Italy joined the Mother's Night campaign as well.