UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are launching the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Lilongwe, Malawi, 14-16 February.
Globally, the rate of skilled care during childbirth has increased from 58% in 1990 to 73% in 2013, mostly due to increases in facility-based births. But giving birth in a health facility with a ‘skilled’ attendant is not sufficient to reduce maternal and newborn deaths and severe morbidity. WHO estimates that 303,000 mothers and 2.7 million newborn infants die annually around the time of childbirth, and many more are affected by preventable illness.
The Quality of Care Network aims to support every pregnant woman, newborn and child with good-quality care in health services, halving maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths in health-care facilities within five years in the nine participating countries: Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Under the leadership of the ministries of health in those countries, the Quality of Care Network brings together health care professionals and providers, technical and funding partners. It will expand to more countries from 2020.
The Quality of Care Network will contribute to ending preventable deaths by 2030, as agreed by the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ health.
Join the conversation #EWECisME and #QualityCareNet
