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The secretary general also shared his own personal experience with childhood mortality for the first time.

“I am the eldest son in my family… in fact, I should not have been,” he said during a morning speech. “I had an elder sister and an elder brother, according to my mother. Unfortunately, they died soon after their birth.”

As a child growing up in South Korea there were no hospitals or health clinics, he said. Women were afraid to give birth.

“Today too many people still live that reality around the world. We cannot accept it,” he said.

South Korea is now among the best healthcare providers in the world.

At the summit, world leaders praised Mr. Harper after he promised to pump another $3.5-billion over the next five years into projects improving the health of mothers and children in the developing world.

“PM Harper, once again you are leading by example,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization. “Way to go.”

But critics have blasted the Harper government’s decision to not fund abortion-related projects.

The Ottawa-based McLeod Group, a collection of academics, former diplomats, government and development hands who are deeply embittered by Mr. Harper’s Canadian foreign policy, say the decision was made to appease the Conservatives’ domestic political base.

In a blog post criticizing Mr. Harper’s initiative, the group reiterated former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s public criticism of that stance during a previous visit to Canada, when she said: “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health, which includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortions.”