Investing in the health of women, children, and adolescents yields significant economic returns: increased productivity, reduced healthcare costs, and a more resilient future workforce. Yet, progress is stalling. Each year, approximately 5 million children die before their fifth birthday—nearly half of these deaths are recorded in sub-Saharan Africa. A woman loses her life to pregnancy or childbirth every two minutes, 70% of which also occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, the global adolescent birth rate for girls aged 10–14 stands at 1.5 per 1,000 women, with disproportionately higher rates in the Global South, where access to education and reproductive healthcare remains limited.
To accelerate progress and reverse these trends, we must transform political will into concrete commitments. Commitments give meaning to our aspirations—they compel us to leverage data for action, implement deliberate legal reforms, and forge strategic partnerships that push us toward healthier, more equitable societies.
It is why, under the leadership of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio and with strong support from the Ministry of Health, Sierra Leone has made maternal and child health a priority, and has declared maternal and child mortality a national emergency. Our approach is clear: we are advancing policy reform and the innovative use of data to confront this challenge directly and decisively.
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Women, girls, and children are the most vulnerable, yet they have the potential to transform our societies and economies if they had access to good health and economic opportunities. Every mother who dies giving life, every baby who doesn't survive, is not merely a tragedy; it is a clarion call to urgently commit to creating the right environment to help our countries prosper. Prioritizing their health is not optional; it is essential to building societies rooted in dignity and equality. Actionable commitment to women's, children's and adolescents' health (WCAH) must be foundational—not an afterthought—in every policy, every program, and every investment we make.
Using Data and Technology to Drive Accountability
Too often, gender equality is framed as an aspirational goal for the future. But when equality is delayed, so is survival. In Sierra Leone, we are charting a different path—one where health systems are designed with women, girls, and children are at the center of proactive, data-driven care.
Our systems must respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, and that requires real-time, actionable data. That's why we launched the Pregnancy Registration and Service Tracking application (PReSTrack), to monitor pregnancies, maternal and child deaths across districts. This tool is more than a reporting mechanism; it is an accountability framework that helps us identify where lives are at risk and respond swiftly.
Recent data shows that:
• 86% of women aged 15–49 received postnatal health checks within two days of delivery.
• 83% of newborns received a health check within the same time frame.
• In 2023 alone, over 640,000 women accessed modern contraception, preventing 240,000 unintended pregnancies, over 87,000 unsafe abortions, and nearly 770 maternal deaths for 70.123 child deaths per 1000 live births.
These tools allow us to track progress, respond effectively, and remain accountable to our communities.
Implementing Legislation to Protect Women's, Children's and Girls' Rights
To protect lives, we must also protect rights. Legislative reform is a cornerstone of Sierra Leone's strategy to accelerate progress on WCAH.
The Ministry of Health and other line Ministries are committed to promoting WCAH legislations and the Child Rights Act to reshape the legal landscape for women, children, and girls. The Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Healthcare Bill reflects initiatives for concrete government action, as part of a broader national effort to strengthen protections through bold, rights-based reform.
These efforts represent structural shifts and aim to criminalize child marriage, expand access to skilled birth attendants, institutionalize safe motherhood as a legal right embedded within the health system.
We are working to ensure these priorities are embedded in parliamentary processes, safeguarded beyond political transitions, and championed at the highest levels, including the African Union. They reflect our commitment to institutionalizing care, safety, and dignity for every woman, child and girl in Sierra Leone.
Leveraging Strategic Partnerships to Scale Impact
If we, as African governments, don't take WCAH seriously, no one else will. It is up to us to make these issues permanent fixtures on every national and continental agenda. No country can tackle maternal and child mortality alone. Strategic partnerships such as the Global Leaders Network (GLN) for Women's, Girls and Adolescents' Health are essential to accelerate regional progress.
The GLN is a unique health initiative that brings together heads of state, ministers, and senior policymakers from the Global South to elevate WCAH as a political priority. For Sierra Leone, participation in the GLN is not symbolic—it is strategic. Through this network, we've amplified our global voice, strengthened our advocacy at forums like the G20, and aligned ourselves with other nations that share our commitment to bold reform.
The latest GLN Technical Meeting in Durban reaffirmed our national commitment to gender equality as a driver of health outcomes. It also allowed us to share our progress, learn from peers, and help shape a global conversation about investing in the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents.
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Commitment has been the driver behind Sierra Leone's engagement for women's, children and adolescents' health and it will continue to be the foundation of our action and decision making. It is proof that countries aiming to accelerate progress on WCAH frameworks should stand firmly by actionable commitments as that is the only way to get results that matter.
When women, children, and adolescents thrive, so do nations.
Dr. Lynda Farma-Grant is the Program Manager for the Newly Established National Child Health Program, Ministry of Health, where she leads national strategies to reduce under-five mortality and expand equitable access to lifesaving care for all children. Her previous roles include serving five years as Deputy Program Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in Sierra Leone. As a Senior Registrar for the Government of Sierra Leone, she also helped design and implement key maternal and child health initiatives. Dr. Farma-Grant has been central to the representation of Sierra Leone at the Global Leaders Network's initiatives. Her work reflects a deep commitment to gender equality, health system strengthening, and protecting the rights and well-being of women, children, and adolescents nationwide.
