UNFPA calls for multisectoral approach to reducing maternal deaths in Ghana

The United Nations Populatfor coordinated efforts across different sectors toion Fund (UNFPA) has called for coordinated efforts across different sectors to help reduce maternal deaths in Ghana, warning that progress in lowering the country’s maternal rate has slowed despite high levels of access to maternal health services.

UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Sennen H. Hounton, said Ghana had made significant gains in bringing maternal health services closer to women and girls, but the quality and readiness of health facilities remained a major concern.

Speaking during a media engagement on Monday, September 14, on the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Emergency Response, Mr Hounton said maternal health should not be treated solely as a responsibility of the Ministry of Health because several factors affecting maternal survival fall outside the health sector.

He pointed to roads, electricity and the availability of health workers as examples.

He said a woman experiencing severe bleeding could lose valuable time if the road to a health facility was poor, while a lack of reliable electricity could delay emergency treatment.

“When you get to the operating theater, having electricity 24/7, maybe now it looks granted for you. But many facilities in this region, in some remote part, they don’t have electricity,” he said.

He also said shortages of health professionals were influenced by budget and recruitment decisions beyond the direct control of health ministries.

“The allocation and the budget allocation are happening outside the Ministry of Health,” he said.

For that reason, he said countries needed a multisectoral approach that brought other government institutions into efforts to reduce maternal deaths.

“That’s why in this region, we believe that the best approach is multisectoral,” Mr Hounton said.

He said there was a need to bring accountability to sectors that were responsible for some of the bottlenecks affecting maternal healthcare.

“Without addressing them, you will remain at the health facility, but you will not move,” he said.

He said the presidential initiative could help bring together the various sectors needed to tackle the problem because the Minister of Health alone might not have the authority to direct other ministries to address issues affecting maternal survival.

“You need someone with a convening power beyond the Ministry of Health to bring other ministries,” he said.

Mr Hounton said the decision by Ghana’s highest office to take up the issue should be recognised as an effort to elevate maternal mortality to a national priority.

“In this case, the highest office of the land said, ‘Let me take this and deal with it’. And we must commend them for that,” he said.

Mr Hounton said many maternal deaths could be prevented because the major medical causes were already known and the interventions required to save lives were available.

“The crisis is what happens usually after they walk through the door. Maternal death in this context is not a clinical mystery,” he said.

He explained that health professionals already knew how to respond to major causes of maternal deaths, including severe bleeding and complications requiring emergency surgery.

“The science is there, and we know what to do,” he said.

“Whether it is a woman bleeding from hemorrhage, whether it is obstetric labor when you will need a C-section surgeon to quickly do a cesarean section and remove the baby before something sad happens, or whether it is eclampsia, we know. And medically, we know what to do.”

He said attention must also be paid to factors that increase the risk of maternal deaths, particularly adolescent pregnancy and child marriage.

A significant proportion of those dying, he said, were adolescents.

“You will understand when a child with a body not full-fledged is giving birth to another child, the risk of dying is high,” Mr Hounton said.

The call comes as the government rolls out a five-year Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response (PRIMER), with UNFPA among the partners supporting efforts to reduce maternal mortality and improve emergency care for pregnant women and newborns.

PRIMER will focus on three broad areas: political leadership and social mobilisation; institutionalised accountability and evidence-based action; and sustainable domestic financing, alongside efforts to mobilise responsible external support.

The initiative will strengthen maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response, improve the timeliness and quality of data, clarify institutional responsibilities, and support regular high-level reviews of results.

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