Every year in Sierra Leone, thousands of pregnant women lose their lives while giving birth.  An overwhelming number of these maternal deaths in Sierra Leone are due to preventable factors. At the heart of our work, UNFPA aims to end preventable maternal deaths by supporting the Government in strengthening its skilled workforce, improving health facilities, monitoring data on maternal deaths, and addressing maternal morbidity.

Reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health is a priority for the Government of Sierra Leone. Over the years, with generous funding from UK aid, UNFPA has been supporting the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in strengthening Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) to save the lives of mothers and newborns.

In 2019, with funding from the Saving Lives in Sierra Leone Programme of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), UNFPA supported the recruitment, tuition, subsistence, procurement of teaching learning materials and supportive supervision of 120 new midwifery students for a two-year training programme at two midwifery schools located in Bo and Makeni districts. At the end of the year, a total of 98 midwives graduated from these schools and were all deployed to health facilities in the 16 districts to provide much needed quality maternal and newborn services.