Maternal health: The next frontier for private sector engagement

Despite major gains over the past two decades, maternal mortality rates remain unacceptably high. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 830 women die of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day — roughly one woman every two minutes.

Nearly 99% of maternal deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries — more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and one-third in South Asia. In addition, more than half of these deaths take place in fragile settings, according to WHO. Maternal mortality among adolescent girls under the age of 15 — a population among the most at-risk for maternal death — could be prevented by ensuring access to contraception, yet contraception prevalence has been stalled at 58% worldwide, going as low as 27.1% in sub-Saharan Africa……more