Country action
Sierra Leone
© WHO / SRH / Hickmatu Leigh 2022. Nurses during an administrative meeting at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 22 June 2022.
Every Woman Every Newborn in Sierra Leone
Download the full profile with additional key demographics, progress against milestones, and more.
© WHO / SRH / Hickmatu Leigh 2022.Magdalene (left) tutors a newly admitted midwifery student, Massah (right), about family planning methods, specifically the use of male and female condoms.
National mortality targets
Maternal mortality ratio
300 per 100,000 live births by 2025
Stillbirth rate
12 per 1,000 live births by 2030
Neonatal mortality rate
12 per 1,000 live births by 2030
Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets
© WHO / SRH / Hickmatu Leigh 2022.A laboratory technician conducts testing for a pregnancy before recommending family planning and contraception to patients at the Marie Stopes International Clinic in Aberdeen, Freetown, Sierra Leone on 21 June 2022.
Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets
MNH Acceleration Plan highlights
In 2024, the priorities in Sierra Leone’s MNH Acceleration Plan include:
- Develop a resource mobilization strategy (for both donor and domestic funding ) for accelerated reduction of maternal and newborn mortality
- Develop advocacy tools for sustained domestic investment in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, including vulnerable population groups.
- Review, revise and prioritize free health care commodities for maternal and newborn health for national procurement
- Enable electronic tracking of every pregnancy to monitor outcome and implement the electronic labour care guide.
© WHO / SRH / Hickmatu Leigh 2022. A nurse sorts and takes record of morning after pills (an emergency contraceptive method) at the Marie Stopes International dispensary on 21 June 2022.
© WHO / SRH / Hickmatu Leigh 2022. Mariatu and her husband Gibril at an antenatal care appointment at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 22 June 2022.
Quality of care in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone 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). Sierra Leone’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 Quality RMNCH Strategic Roadmap is implemented, and a National Quality and Patient Safety Policy and roadmap are developed.
- 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.
- Respectful Maternity Care Guidelines and training materials were rolled out.
- The institutionalization of clinical meetings, mortality reviews and near miss reviews is prioritized, to strengthen facility level surveillance and response to maternal and perinatal deaths.
- Mechanisms for community participation were developed, with community engagement guidelines for quality care, community scorecards and dedicated community engagement programmes.
- A quality of care dashboard and a reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health Scorecard were introduced into the national DHIS 2 to collect, report and use quality of care indicators and strengthen routine measurement systems.
News and events
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