UNFPA Directors Meet in Sierra Leone for Strategic Review of Programs in West and Central Africa

Sierra Leone and Niger were selected for the deep-dive exercise given that the two countries face some of the highest maternal mortality rates, child marriage and adolescent pregnancy globally. Sierra Leone is accelerating efforts to reduce its maternal mortality rate of 717 per 100,000 live births to progress towards the SDG target of 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

“We, as UNFPA, have done many good things to accelerate progress on maternal health and family planning. However, one lesson is that we need to invest more in demand generation and addressing social norms that put women’s lives at risk and hinder them from achieving their full potential,” remarked Arthur Erken, UNFPA’s Director of Policy and Strategy. He reflected that the visit provided an opportunity to dive deep into progress and challenges in the country and understand why some indicators have shown slow improvement. Sierra Leone, he said, has made enormous progress but there is an opportunity for further improvement in critical areas, including digitalization of data.

UNFPA’s Representative in Sierra Leone, Ms. Nadia Rasheed welcomed the strategic review, stating that “this was an important opportunity to analyse the organization’s work and contributions in Sierra Leone, and to set a corporate vision for accelerating the pace of progress to transform the lives of women and young people.” She noted that UNFPA has been a partner in Sierra Leone since 1971 and has made strong contributions to advancing national development priorities and improving sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on ending maternal deaths, unmet need for family planning and gender-based violence and other harmful practices.

UNFPA provides up to 90 per cent of family planning commodities in Sierra Leone. In 2022, this support enabled nearly 540,000 women to meet their family planning needs, helping to avert more than 200,000 unintended pregnancies, 74,000 unsafe abortions and 1,600 maternal deaths. UNFPA has also helped to train more than 1,400 midwives in the past 12 years to contribute to ending maternal deaths, together with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Government of the United Kingdom.

Credit: UNFPA West and Central Africa (Dakar)