Freetown, 7 April 2025 – The World Well being Group (WHO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Well being Sierra Leone, joined the worldwide neighborhood to commemorate World Well being Day 2025 underneath the theme: “Wholesome Beginnings, Hopeful Futures a Name to Motion to strengthen techniques and partnerships that guarantee each girl and new child survives and thrives.
The occasion that introduced collectively the press, key well being stakeholders, together with senior officers from the Ministry of Well being, well being improvement companions, and the donor neighborhood geared toward accelerating progress in decreasing preventable maternal and new child deaths within the nation. And marked the official launch of a year-long Maternal and New child Well being Marketing campaign underneath Sierra Leone’s sub-theme: “Tackling the Public Well being Emergency of Preventable Maternal and Little one Mortality.”
Talking on the occasion, Dr. George Ameh, WHO Nation Consultant, applauded the Authorities of Sierra Leone and its individuals for the super strides made in decreasing maternal and new child deaths within the nation.
“The World Well being Day marks WHO’s 77th anniversary and underscores our collective resolve to finish preventable maternal and new child deaths. In Sierra Leone, the Authorities’s daring steps-including the declaration of maternal and new child deaths as a nationwide emergency in 2019 – have paved the best way for one of many steepest declines in maternal mortality in Africa, with a 78% discount since 2000,” stated Dr. George Ameh.
“WHO commends this progress and acknowledges the pressing have to speed up efforts in order that no girl or new child is left behind. Each greenback invested in maternal and new child well being delivers life-saving returns: more healthy households, stronger societies, and financial resilience,” added Dr Ameh
Dr Austin Demby launched the most recent estimates from the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Company Group, which confirmed Sierra Leone’s nice achievements and milestone of decreasing maternal mortality from 443 to 354 per 100,000 dwell births (2020 – 2023). This places Sierra Leone on the appropriate trajectory of decreasing maternal mortality to lower than 300 by 2025.
In his remarks, he lauded this 12 months’s theme that resonates with the Individual-Centered Life Levels Strategy, like how a mom’s and kid’s well being in the beginning of life set the muse for a thriving, affluent future. A wholesome starting is not only about survival. He reaffirmed the Authorities’s unwavering dedication to ending preventable deaths of moms and kids.
“Sierra Leone has made commendable progress, however we should do extra to maintain and construct on our positive factors. These achievements outcome from the Authorities’s dedication and measures, together with a strong, structured response by way of the Incident Administration System for maternal and youngster mortality supported by WHO and companions the place the story of each single dying is instructed and well timed actions are taken to stop the reoccurrence of comparable incidents,” stated Dr Austine Demby.
“This demonstrates steps taken ahead in instituting accountability to the ladies and kids of Sierra Leone. For that reason, we’re placing a mechanism in place to trace each being pregnant utilizing the Prestrack, a transformational step ahead,” added Dr Demby.
Dr Demby reechoed the Authorities’s dedication to proceed supporting the work of WHO and our companions to ship well being providers to the inhabitants in Sierra Leone.
As a part of the marketing campaign, WHO and companions will unite to help a sequence of focused interventions all through the year-ranging from neighborhood outreach and well being employee coaching to coverage advocacy and repair supply enhancements.
WHO additionally collaborated with the Sierra Leone Blood Financial institution to mobilize blood as a life-saving intervention for moms, amongst different teams, going through emergency conditions.
