Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Excellencies, colleagues, and friends,
I join Minister Austin Demby in welcoming you to this side event, and I thank Dr Demby and the Government of Sierra Leone for prioritizing child health.
Since 2000, we’ve improved child survival, development, and well-being in the African region.
More women, newborns, and young children in our region are surviving the critical life stages of childbirth and the first five years of life.
Between 2000 to 2022:
- The stillbirth rate declined by 25%;
- The maternal mortality ratio decreased by 33%;
- The neonatal mortality rate fell by 35%;
- And there were fewer deaths for those under 5, with mortality rates decreasing by 53%.
On nutrition, half of the countries in the WHO African Region have attained wasting rates below the 2025 target threshold of 5%. However, malnutrition still underlies 1 in 3 child deaths.
Stunting rates among children aged less than five years have declined.
Regarding HIV, new infections among children have also decreased, with two countries attaining important milestones on the path to the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and three others attaining rates of transmission below 5%.
Concerning malaria, incidence and mortality are now declining. I will discuss this in a breakfast meeting on Friday morning.
As WHO, we support countries in designing, reviewing, implementing, and monitoring national health sector strategic plans.
We develop strategies for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health strategies - to reach every woman and every child, everywhere, with the engagement of multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Over the past three years, with our partners, we have supported countries in developing and implementing maternal newborn and child health acceleration plans as part of Every Woman Every Newborn, Everywhere # [for] Healthy Futures and Child Survival Action.
Twenty-two (22) countries have developed and are implementing maternal newborn health acceleration plans, and another 4 are currently developing plans. Thirteen (13) countries have child survival action plans, or policy dialogue has been initiated to develop them.
Equity, quality improvement, health systems support, and resilience are central components of these acceleration plans.
As WHO, we help countries strengthen and reorient health systems to primary healthcare and an integrated people-centered approach.
That’s why we’ve assisted countries in developing essential health service packages to address the needs of all population groups. Sixteen (16) countries have developed these essential and health benefit packages.
To track and monitor progress, WHO supports countries in strengthening routine information systems, establishing country baselines, and reporting progress at national and subnational levels.
While we have made progress in Africa, we’re facing stagnation, and we’re six years from 2030.
SDG 3.1., highlights the urgency to end preventable deaths of mothers. SDG 3.2 does the same to ending preventable stillbirths and deaths of newborns and children under five by 2030. These two goals are inextricably linked.
Of the 59 countries that need accelerated action to meet the child survival SDG, over 42 are in Africa, demonstrating the challenges facing the continent.
One death is one too many: it’s a public health emergency. That’s why we’ve gathered today to discuss how to prevent this.
We still face many familiar hurdles, including insufficient political commitment and funding and high costs for some essential commodities, including treatment.
What can we achieve in the short time we have today? Through this side event, we can—
First, advocate and influence the highest levels of government - position maternal newborn and child survival health development and well-being at the center of all national and regional development efforts.
Second, inspire countries without national roadmaps to create one and strengthen existing ones with measurable milestones.
Third, allocate domestic resources and mobilize and align partner resources to match our ambition for acceleration.
Fourth, to honour our commitments, we must domesticate and require joint accountability, tracking, and data sharing from all levels of government.
Let’s utilize the World Health Assembly resolution as a means to the AU Agenda 2063 – “The Africa We Want.”
I look forward to fruitful discussions on how we can tackle preventable child mortality, and together, we’ll implement them.
Thank you once again for coming, and for your attention.