A nation’s ability to provide quality maternal and child health care services is a basic indicator of the overall development in public and community health wellbeing. Maternal and child health is concerned with all the major aspects of a properly functioning health care system including quality of life and rights and justice to access healthcare services (Kotch, 2012). Given its importance as an indicator of healthcare development, major global initiatives on public and community health care have focused on improving the maternal and child health.

The assumption is that by focusing on the maternal and child health development, it would be easier to address all the issues concerned with the realization of sustainable development goals. Maternal and child health advocacy has, therefore, emerged as an important step in realizing the Millennium Development Goals and other initiatives towards quality public and community development. It is necessary for leaders in public and community development advocacy groups to focus on maternal and child health as the main driver towards the overall goals. Therefore this paper focuses on maternal and child health advocacy initiatives and the issues faced by leaders in these initiatives.

Improving maternal and child health requires significant investments in the public health care system. There must be a political will to ensure allocation of enough resources in realizing major goals towards quality services (Leveridge et al., 2007). Public institutions play a key role in setting the objectives for community health, and the process involves identifying causes for poor outcomes, promoting community awareness and developing effective public policies through legislations (Pillitteri, 2010). The progression in these steps aligns well with the role of advocacy initiatives in realizing better outcomes for maternal and child health. Advocacy groups influence the objectives of the public institutions towards addressing the major issues in communities, such as the challenges faced by women during childbirth and postnatal care. This study is significant given the relationship between the issues in maternal and child health and the functioning of the community health care system.

Advocacy initiatives are normally geared towards addressing the major concerns of the most vulnerable people in society, such as the health care needs of the poor (Goffin, 1988). Mothers and children constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in any society, and their wellbeing is central to the overall wellbeing of people in society (Victora et al., 2003). It is by focusing on these groups that the advocacy groups can improve the quality of lives for everyone in the target community. There is a wide range of issues which can be addressed as part of the policy issues in maternal and child health, including health disparities and provision of basic infrastructure facilities to support social and economic development (Cohen et al., 2001). Vulnerable groups need the active participation of advocacy groups to act as their representatives and facilitators when dealing with public institutions concerned with the allocation of public resources (Carlisle, 2000).

Transformative policies in health care treat the needs of the vulnerable groups as human rights (Cooper et al., 2004). The right of woman and children to access quality health care services plays an integral part in realizing the global goals in public and community health wellbeing (world health report, 2005). The specific issues involved in access to quality care include the availability of trained medical personnel and medical facilities (Kane et al., 1992). When these resources are provided to cater for the needs of maternal and child health, the whole community benefits through improved overall access to quality care. Leaders in public advocacy groups need to understand and focus on the relationship between addressing the basic issues affecting the vulnerable groups and the overall improvement in the public health care system.