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The wonderful experience of giving life carries the risk of morbidity and mortality.

However, this risk is steadily declining in Sub-Saharan Africa. Between 2000 and 2020, the maternal mortality ratio has declined by one-third or from 807 to 545 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This is noteworthy; however, despite progress, the risk of dying while giving birth is still unacceptably high. Lifetime risk of maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa is at least eight times higher than other regions.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, too many women, an estimated 202,000, died from giving life in 2020. This represents 70 per cent of global maternal deaths and translates into over 550 maternal deaths per day, which is one maternal death every two and half minutes. For every death, 20 to 30 more morbidities including obstetric fistula and perinatal mental health occur. The deaths leave behind devastated husbands, partners, children, communities, societies, and nations. Most of these maternal deaths could be prevented by improving availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of human rights-based Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child, Adolescent Health services.

One of the major barriers to improving access to comprehensive maternal and newborn care in Sub-Saharan Africa is the difficulty in ensuring availability of skilled, motivated, supported and regulated health providers. The good news is that well-trained and supported midwives have the potential to provide 90 per cent of all essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and new-born health services. The bad news is that currently they represent only 10 per cent of the health workforce.

Globally, there are 900,000 midwife deficits by 2035 with 500,000 in Africa.

As the United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA is a leader in supporting quality midwifery care across the world. We support governments to improve competency-based training, midwifery regulatory mechanisms and workforce policy that comply with international standards. We are also harnessing the power of technology to train midwives in remote areas or emergency crisis zones.

We are committed to strengthen ‘midwifery-led care' as a critical pathway to end preventable maternal and new-born deaths and stillbirths.

We are not alone. We are glad to partner with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and with more than 20 global partners from civil society, academia, private sector, professional bodies and development partners to host the 5th Global Midwifery Symposium on 7 and 8th May 2023, a pre-event to the International Maternal Newborn Health Conference (IMNHC2023).

During the Symposium, Global Partners appealed to the United Nations member states to: Promote midwifery care; Strengthen the Midwife Workforce; Improve Working Conditions and Support for Midwives; Address Barriers to Accessing Care from Midwives; Ensure Provision of Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Rights (SRHR) by Midwives; and Monitor Progress and Strengthen Accountability.

The current pace of progress in preventing maternal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa is significantly less than the pace of progress required to take the region closer to the Sustainable Development Goals target of 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 births by 2030. In fact, the current pace of progress needs to be improved by five-times to be able to meet the SDG-3 maternal mortality target in Sub-Saharan Africa.

African mothers deserve better. They deserve to feel safe and supported as they bring new life into the world. Investing in midwifery education, training, and professional development is the least we can do to deliver a brighter future for generations to come. Together, we can eliminate preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and empower every woman to give birth with confidence, without having to pay the ultimate price.

Let's take action now, and make sure that no more lives are needlessly lost in the miracle of childbirth.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UNFPA - East and Southern Africa.

The ‘Youth Energy Summit (YES!)' is a convening hub to align entrepreneurs, students and early career professionals with the corporate and development communities. With a goal of reaching 100 million people across the African continent over the coming ten years through a network of solution providers, the programme is a combination of in-person and online learning and networking through the Beyond Privileged 365 Digital Platform, enabling participation by anyone, from anywhere on the African continent.

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. GEAPP's common mission is to enable low and medium income countries (LMICs) shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that accelerates universal energy access and inclusive economic growth while supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade.

As an alliance, GEAPP aims to reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, expand clean energy access to one billion people, and enable 150 million new jobs. With philanthropic partners, IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyse new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, and deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions and assist just transition solutions.

“It has long been stated that Africa lacks bankable projects, so when we designed YES! we understood clearly from the MSMEs and entrepreneurs that the one thing which would have helped them succeed faster, would have been access to a network of advisors, investors and technology providers to help build out their business plans and access capital more efficiently.

Through the Africa Energy Forum, EnergyNet have been highly effective at building a global network of industry-leading stakeholders, the majority of whom have initiatives designed to support and develop local communities. However, some of those initiatives remain largely underutilised due to the resources required to establish networks and engage people in those programmes. YES! will act as that convening hub to communicate with 100,000,000 Africans over the next 10 years through a network of philanthropic organisations, mobile operators, universities, learning initiatives, community based networks and corporate partners.

By building an all-of-sector alliance to establish the world's largest network of potential African energy developers, entrepreneurs and MSMEs, YES! will speed up the pace of energy access for millions more people across the continent, as well as promoting the expansion of established initiatives already working with thousands of people independently of the rest of the development community.

It is no longer helpful to state that 600 million Africans lack access to energy as a statistic of relevance, without addressing the fact that this number is only getting larger as population growth continues its war against energy access. And to give context to that statement, World Bank statistics have for a number of years forecasted that 25% of the world's population, of which 50% of that 25% will be under 25 years of age, will live on the continent by 2050.

It is therefore time to look at this challenge through a different lens and focus directly on how Africa's youths are empowered to increase the scale and pace of energy access, far beyond the current development model which operators in siloes and is often inaccessible to aspiring African entrepreneurs, leaving millions of people not only without electricity, but also without hope of change within their lifetimes. I'm grateful to GEAPP for their support as they also seek to tackle both climate change and job creations through their network of partners and investments.

The support of GEAPP is critical to the programme's success, not only does it bring in critical investment to provide more travel grants and greater market penetration, it brings a year round partnership striving in harmony to put Africans at the heart of their own development needs, creating millions of community based jobs with carbon-smart technologies, not only improving the livelihoods of children, but also the planet.”  Simon Gosling, EnergyNet

“GEAPP is thrilled to be joining as a foundational partner for the Youth Energy Summit,” says Joseph Nganga, GEAPP's VP for Africa. “Young entrepreneurs are often excluded from all aspects of the energy transition value chain, and they face disproportionate barriers to educational opportunities, project finance, and decent jobs, particularly those in emerging and developing economies where access is compounded with additional development challenges. To meet ambitious global goals of hundreds of millions of green jobs by 2030, it is urgent that young people are trained and supported now to access opportunities and accelerate growth in the renewables sectors as they seek opportunities in the workforce. GEAPP looks forward to working with EnergyNet to unlock the abundant potential of young entrepreneurs who will lead the energy transition and realizing a more equal and sustainable world.”

The Youth Energy Summit in Nairobi this June will welcome nearly 1,000 entrepreneurs, MSMEs, Early Career Professionals, Educators and Students. To be there, click here: https://apo-opa.info/3LRIM51

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of EnergyNet Ltd..

For media & press enquiries, please contact Elle Kelly, Marketing Manager – Youth Energy Summit (YES!), Elle@EnergyNet.co.uk

About EnergyNet:
FACILITATING ENERGY INVESTMENT IN FAST-GROWING ECONOMIES - EnergyNet has produced investment forums and executive dialogues for Africa and Latin America's power sectors for the last 25 years - in Europe, the USA, Asia and across Africa and Latin America.

We work with governments and national utilities to facilitate investment summits where credible international investors can build relationships with public sector stakeholders to advance access to power.

Best known for the Africa Energy Forum, the longest-serving business development meeting place for senior-level decision makers in Africa's power sector, other leading investment summits we provide strategic perspectives on the investment landscape and project preparation include the H2 Africa, Offshore Technology Africa, Powering Africa Summit, Latin American Energy Forum and Latin American & Caribbean Gas Conference and Exhibition.

Having this focus on public and private sector partnerships provides us with a valuable lens through which we can offer independent perspectives and support the business development activities of companies from around the world operating in these fast-growing markets. Our team talks daily with stakeholders across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to support these insights, so relationships and investor insights are our business and our passion.

About GEAPP:
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. GEAPP's common mission is to enable low and medium income countries (LMICs) shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that accelerates universal energy access and inclusive economic growth while supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade.