Country action
Malawi
Photo © 2023 WHO / Gary Chong Studios – Faris Syazwan:
Ismaziah, a community nurse and midwife, assesses the child’s health and runs through the standard medical protocol checklist.
Every Woman Every Newborn in Malawi
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National mortality targets
Maternal mortality ratio
140 per 100,000 live births by 2030
Stillbirth rate
No data
Neonatal mortality rate
12 per 1,000 live births by 2030
Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets
©UNICEF/WHO.Attribution needed
Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets
MNH Acceleration Plan highlights
I In 2024, some of Malawi’s MNH Acceleration Plan priorities include:
- Quality of care standards and respectful maternal care implemented in health facilities.
- Improve communication and transport for referral
- Conduct outreach clinics for hard-to-reach areas
- Develop a community scorecard on MNH
©UNICEF/Quarmyne. Pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic at a Reproductive and Child Health facility in Savelugu, in the Northern Region of Ghana, in 26 May 2015.
Quality of care in Malawi
Malawi is one of the 11 countries that set-up the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network). (link to quality of care network internal page). Malawi’s successes in improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health are essential to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths. These include:
- A National Quality Management Policy is implemented.
- The World Health Organization’s standards to improve quality of maternal and newborn care, small and sick newborns care, and children and young adolescents care in health facilities are adopted.
- Malawi added an additional standard for community engagement and social accountability activities and outcomes. Malawi established social accountability structures at national level to ensure the provision of quality MNCH services across all health facilities.
- Training for quality improvement in MNCH is expanded nationally to all 29 districts.
- A national MNCH online learning platform on quality of care was set up for frontline health workers with over 1200 health enrolled, as part of their continuous professional development.
- A plan to strengthen the health workforce, especially neonatal nurses is underway.
News and events
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