Accelerating the maternal and newborn health agenda in Africa

Key takeaways from the Every Woman, Every Newborn, Everywhere Regional Convening

Despite significant progress in child survival and maternal health over the past decades, many countries, particularly in Africa, are still struggling to meet the SDG targets for saving lives of mothers, newborns, and children and reducing still births.

Current trends indicate that more than 80 percent of countries are unlikely to meet their national targets for reducing maternal deaths. Furthermore, 64 countries are projected to miss the neonatal mortality target, and 59 countries will fall short of the under-five mortality target by 2030. To accelerate progress toward these targets, countries need focused, urgent, and coordinated course-correcting actions led by their own governments to improve maternal, newborn, and child survival.

In mid-July 2024, nearly one year since the International Maternal and Child Health Conference in South Africa, 14 countries from East and Southern Africa met to review progress on the maternal and newborn health acceleration plans they made at that conference and to chart the way forward. PATH advocates joined a regional workshop to influence maternal, newborn and child health acceleration plans.

The meeting provided an opportunity for country technical teams, together with United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), development partners and civil society advocates to review the progress registered thus far on implementation of the acceleration plans and share good practices and innovations that are making a difference towards the targets. They also coordinated on advocacy strategies to move the agenda forward.

PATH, in partnership with AlignMNH, Jhpiego, White Ribbon Alliance, UNICEF, and WHO, led a session to support countries in identifying the advocacy priorities that would ramp up country and regional level efforts towards the 2030 targets.

Here are the key takeaways:

All countries emphasized the importance of increasing domestic funding of maternal and newborn health as a critical step for accelerating progress.

With the shrinking fiscal space at the global level, countries need to leverage their internal resources to support maternal and newborn health related initiatives within the broader spectrum of primary health care. This advocacy will require evidence on the funding needs and engagement with appropriators at country level to ensure success.

The countries also identified priority areas for investment including improving quality of care by equipping lower-level facilities, strengthening human resources for health, and investing in newborn care infrastructure and equipment.

Actualizing these advocacy priorities will take the concerted efforts of all stakeholders including normative agencies, government technical teams, political decision makers that appropriate budgets, and civil society groups that elevate community priorities, from the local level to the global level.

WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and civil society actors recently formed an Advocacy and Accountability Working Group to convene in-country, regional, and global advocates and other stakeholders to facilitate joint advocacy action and advance Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere targets. I am pleased to represent PATH as co-chair of this working group together with UNICEF. This group will work closely with the country teams to follow through on these advocacy priorities.

Acceleration efforts need the input and representation of the community as users of MNCH health services. By involving community members, there is a greater understanding and ownership which leads to better adoption of maternal and newborn care interventions.

Community engagement helps to address barriers such as cultural beliefs, gender norms, and misinformation that often hinder access to essential health services. It empowers women and families to make informed decisions about their health and encourages community-driven solutions that are culturally appropriate and effective. Active participation from the community enhances social accountability and strengthens the link between health systems and the populations they serve, ensuring that interventions are more responsive to the actual needs and priorities of the people.

If this can be strengthened, then 2030 targets are within reach.

Policies are often made in the capitals with very little effort to ensure their dissemination and utilization at the clinic level. This results in many countries having very good policies and technical guidance that is not received or utilized at the frontline. That needs to change as we accelerate toward 2030. PATH shared our Capital to Clinic tool which provides practical guidance to advocates, policy makers and implementors to support policy implementation at all levels.

As we race toward the 2030 deadline, with progress stalling in many areas, the urgency to act has never been greater. The challenges we face in maternal, newborn and child survival require immediate, coordinated efforts to reignite momentum.

The time for incremental changes has passed; we now need bold, transformative actions to meet the SDGs.