Intensification of efforts to end obstetric fistula A/RES/69/148 9. Calls upon States to accelerate progress in order to improve maternal health in the remaining days of the Millennium Development Goals and beyond 2015, by addressing sexual and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in a comprehensive manner, inter alia, through the provision of family planning, prenatal care, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric and newborn care, postnatal care and methods of prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, such as HIV, within strengthened health-care systems that provide equal access to affordable, equitable and high-quality integrated health-care services and include community-based preventive and clinical care, as also reflected in the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, entitled “Keeping the promise: united to achieve the Millennium Development Goals”, 7 and in the Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health; 10. Urges the international community to address the shortage of doctors and the inequitable distribution of midwives, nurses and other health-care workers trained in lifesaving obstetric care, and of space and supplies, which limit the capacity of most fistula centres; 11. Commends the commemoration by the international community of 23 May as the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula and the decision to continue to use the International Day each year to significantly raise awareness and intensify actions towards ending obstetric fistula; 12. Calls upon States and/or the relevant funds and programmes, organs and the specialized agencies of the United Nations system, within their respective mandates, and invites the international financial institutions and all relevant actors of civil society, including non-governmental organizations, and the private sector: (a) To redouble their efforts to meet the internationally agreed goal of improving maternal health by making maternal health-care services and obstetric fistula treatment geographically and financially accessible, including by ensuring universal access to skilled attendance at birth and timely access to high-quality emergency obstetric care and family planning, as well as appropriate prenatal and postnatal care; (b) To make greater investments in strengthening health systems, ensuring adequately trained and skilled human resources, especially midwives, obstetricians, gynaecologists and doctors, and providing support for the development and maintenance of infrastructure, as well as investments in referral mechanisms, equipment and supply chains, to improve maternal and newborn health-care services and ensure that women and girls have access to the full continuum of care, with functional quality control and monitoring mechanisms in place for all areas of service delivery; (c) To support the training of doctors, nurses and other health-care workers in lifesaving obstetric care, especially midwives, who are the front-line workers in the fight to prevent obstetric fistula and maternal and newborn mortality, and include training on fistula repair, treatment and care as a standard element of the training curricula of health professionals; (d) To ensure equitable access through national policies, plans and programmes that make maternal and newborn health-care services, particularly family planning, skilled attendance at birth, emergency obstetric and newborn care and obstetric fistula treatment, financially accessible, including in rural and remote 5/8