Freetown, 7 April 2025 – The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health Sierra Leone, joined the global community to commemorate World Health Day 2025 under the theme: "Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures a Call to Action to strengthen systems and partnerships that ensure every woman and newborn survives and thrives. 

The event that brought together the press, key health stakeholders, including senior officials from the Ministry of Health, health development partners, and the donor community aimed at accelerating progress in reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths in the country. And marked the official launch of a year-long Maternal and Newborn Health Campaign under Sierra Leone's sub-theme: "Tackling the Public Health Emergency of Preventable Maternal and Child Mortality." 

Speaking at the event, Dr. George Ameh, WHO Country Representative, applauded the Government of Sierra Leone and its people for the tremendous strides made in reducing maternal and newborn deaths in the country.

"The World Health Day marks WHO's 77th anniversary and underscores our collective resolve to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths. In Sierra Leone, the Government's bold steps-including the declaration of maternal and newborn deaths as a national emergency in 2019 - have paved the way for one of the steepest declines in maternal mortality in Africa, with a 78% reduction since 2000," said Dr. George Ameh. 

"WHO commends this progress and recognizes the urgent need to accelerate efforts so that no woman or newborn is left behind. Every dollar invested in maternal and newborn health delivers life-saving returns: healthier families, stronger societies, and economic resilience," added Dr Ameh

Dr Austin Demby launched the latest estimates from the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, which showed Sierra Leone's great achievements and milestone of reducing maternal mortality from 443 to 354 per 100,000 live births (2020 – 2023). This puts Sierra Leone on the right trajectory of reducing maternal mortality to less than 300 by 2025. 

In his remarks, he lauded this year's theme that resonates with the Person-Centered Life Stages Approach, like how a mother's and child's health at the start of life set the foundation for a thriving, prosperous future. A healthy beginning is not just about survival. He reaffirmed the Government's unwavering commitment to ending preventable deaths of mothers and children. 

"Sierra Leone has made commendable progress, but we must do more to sustain and build on our gains. These achievements result from the Government's commitment and measures, including a robust, structured response through the Incident Management System for maternal and child mortality supported by WHO and partners where the story of every single death is told and timely actions are taken to prevent the reoccurrence of similar incidents," said Dr Austine Demby. 

"This demonstrates steps taken forward in instituting accountability to the women and children of Sierra Leone. For this reason, we are putting a mechanism in place to track every pregnancy using the Prestrack, a transformational step forward," added Dr Demby.

Dr Demby reechoed the Government's commitment to continue supporting the work of WHO and our partners to deliver health services to the population in Sierra Leone.  

As part of the campaign, WHO and partners will unite to support a series of targeted interventions throughout the year-ranging from community outreach and health worker training to policy advocacy and service delivery improvements. 

WHO also collaborated with the Sierra Leone Blood Bank to mobilize blood as a life-saving intervention for mothers, among other groups, facing emergency situations.