Why action and innovation in maternal health must be accelerated

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the theme for World Health Day, April 7, 2025: Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures. This year’s focus is on improving maternal and newborn health and survival — a pressing global priority. Every two minutes, a woman loses her life due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth. These stark numbers reflect not just individual tragedies, but also the profound impact on families and communities around the world.

With only five years left to achieve the target of the Sustainable Development Goals, essential maternal and newborn health care must be prioritized to close the gap. At last year’s World Health Assembly, a maternal health emergency was called by countries with some of the highest numbers of maternal deaths and a resolution was passed to accelerate action.

Weakened healthcare systems and depleted essential health resources contribute to staggeringly high rates of maternal and newborn deaths. Of all the maternal deaths, 64% occurred in 29 countries identified by the World Health Organization as affected by humanitarian crises. Governments, NGOs, donors, development agencies and the private sector must come together to respond to this maternal health emergency with decisive action.

Over 94% of maternal deaths occur in low- and lower-middle-income countries. Women in these regions face numerous barriers to accessing quality healthcare, including inadequate health infrastructure, a shortage of trained healthcare providers and access to key quality maternal health medicines and equipment. Furthermore, socioeconomic disparities, including poverty, lack of education and poor living conditions, exacerbate these challenges, perpetuating a cycle of poor maternal health outcomes. Maternal health disparities are not limited to developing economies either. There are disparities in maternal health outcomes within developed economies as well. This is due to factors such as access to quality care, insurance coverage, etc.

Maternal health is increasingly threatened by climate change, geopolitical conflicts, economic downturns and ongoing epidemics. Climate hazards, such as extreme heat, are associated with higher risks of pregnancy complications, including gestational diabetes and hypertensive disorders. Additionally, the aftermath of climate hazards, such as flooding or hurricanes, can disrupt access to healthcare facilities and medicines, leading to increased maternal morbidity and mortality and prolonged disruption of services.

The increase in conflicts has led to the displacement of over 70 million people in the past two decades. Consequently, this has had a devastating impact on maternal health, with many regions left without functioning health services and exacerbated disparities. Conflict impacts the ability to implement successful health services and conduct research on maternal health. Financial and geopolitical insecurity, challenging and often remote locations of displaced populations, high staff turnover and limited investment, all stand in the way of protecting pregnant and postpartum women.

To end preventable maternal deaths and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, urgent, innovative and targeted measures are necessary. At the current rate, more than 80% of countries are projected to fall short of the SDG maternal mortality targets. The current pace of decline in maternal mortality would need to be accelerated ninefold to meet these goals. The good news is that cost-effective, affordable and quality-assured solutions to reduce these deaths are available, even in humanitarian crisis settings.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Activator Network on Maternal Health is a catalytic initiative that aims to work with governments and health ministries to accelerate solutions tailored to national contexts. The objective of the initiative is to help countries align their SDG goal by:

⦁ Incubating effective public-private-civil society partnerships to drive systemic change in maternal health.

⦁ Strengthening the local ecosystems to scale successful, evidence-based interventions by connecting global and local actors.

⦁ Facilitating country-to-country leadership and learning and best practice exchange.

Nigeria became the first country to join the Global Activator Network on Maternal Health – demonstrating its commitment to 'crash maternal mortality' and work cross-sector to achieve this vital ambition.

This was solidified with the signing of a letter of intent during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025 between the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the World Economic Forum. Quickly following that, the project kicked off with a scoping workshop in March 2025, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Ferring Pharmaceuticals. The World Economic Forum hosted this workshop to define the key priorities for public-private-philanthropic collaboration to address maternal health and death in the country. Resolutions were made to strengthen midwifery training and to ensure access to quality-assured maternal health supplies, with advocacy, financing and coordination being the foundational enablers. Organizations from the private sector and civil society committed to collective problem-solving through the platform to 'crash maternal mortality' in Nigeria. Following this, focus groups are being formed to strengthen the ecosystem to advance the resolutions.

The Global Activator Network is also engaging with other potential members of the network to scope the roadmap to end preventable deaths by pregnancy and childbirth. It will potentially expand to India and Indonesia later this year..

Achieving sustainable progress in maternal health requires a holistic ecosystem approach, where governments, private sector partners, civil society organizations and global health institutions work together to drive impact. The Global Activator Network on Maternal Health is committed to collaborating with governments to activate the private sector, recognizing its critical role in scaling innovation, investing in life-saving maternal health commodities and supplies and strengthening supply chains for essential medicines and technologies. With civil society serving as the essential bridge for effective implementation and equitable access, the Global Activator Network aims to ensure that maternal health solutions are co-designed to be community-centred, sustainably integrated into healthcare systems and driven by people-centred systemic change.