MAPUTO, July 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Former Mozambican prime minister Pascoal Mocumbi has been appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Goodwill Ambassador for maternal, newborn and child health, with special attention to mortality reduction in the African region.

    A press release from the WHO regional office for Africa, reaching here on Monday, said Mocumbi is tasked with "raising awareness of maternal, newborn and child health issues among target groups e.g. Heads of State, policy-makers, development partners and community leaders."

    As goodwill ambassador, Mocumbi "will serve as the voice of millions of voiceless African women, newborns and children by exploring various mechanisms for the promotion of their health, advocating with governments, communities, philanthropic organizations and foundations to mobilize funds to promote maternal, newborn and child health."

    His main tasks as goodwill ambassador will be to step up advocacy and resource mobilization in order to accelerate attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to mother and child health.

    This is an area covered by two of the eight MDGs adopted by the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000. These goals are to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015, and, within the same time frame, to reduce the maternal mortality rate by three quarters.

    Mocumbi is currently the High Representative of the Holland-based European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), which is devoting to developing new interventions to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Enditem