The health of children and newborns is intimately connected to the well-being of mothers. In recognition of this, a global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health was launched in 2005. By their first major assembly in 2007, the partnership was an alliance of some 120 other organizations with similar goals.
UNFPA has also teamed up with four partners, UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, to accelerate progress in saving the lives of women and newborns. Collectively known as the 'The Health 4+' or 'H4+', the five agencies have pledged to support countries with the highest maternal mortality rates.
The H4+ joined the Every Woman Every Child effort in 2010 to support to the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. The agencies have helped countries to make commitments to this global initiative, and with the UN’s MDG Advocates and partners, are supporting a group of countries—that together accounts for almost 60 per cent of global maternal deaths—to mobilize the financial, technical and human resources needed to meet their commitments.
Major collaborative initiatives:
- Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
- UNFPA Campaign to End Fistula
- Columbia University’s Averting Maternal Death and Disability
- Women Deliver Initiative
- Every Woman Every Child
Other key partners:
- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
- The World Bank
- Healthy Newborn Partnership (HNP)
- Impact Initiative for Maternal Mortality Programme Assessment
- International Confederation of Midwives (ICM)
- International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- Population Council
- The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood
Major donors:
- Austria
- Canada
- Columbia University’s Averting Maternal Death and Disability programme with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- France
- Iceland
- Johnson & Johnson
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Nations Foundation
- Zonta International
Related Links
Saving the lives of mothers is a huge and important challenge. It requires collaboration and knowledge-sharing among the many institutions and organizations that work in this arena. UNFPA has selected the following links as a way to make more accessible some of the excellent research, analysis and programming that has been done on reducing maternal mortality.
- Averting Maternal Death and Disability -- Columbia University, Heilbrunn Center, Mailman School of Public Health
- The Alan Guttmacher Institute
- The Center for Reproductive Rights
- Management Sciences for Health, Inc. (MSH)
- Family Health International (FHI)
- International Women's Health Coalition
- Johns Hopkins JHPIEGO
* These links are for information purposes only and do not imply UNFPA endorsement of any material on other organizations' sites.
