The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a sobering warning that ongoing reductions in global health financing pose a grave threat to maternal and neonatal health systems across Africa, with millions of lives potentially at risk.
Speaking during World Health Day commemorations in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, Dr Juliet Bataringaya, the Acting Country Representative for WHO Botswana, underscored the deleterious consequences of underfunded healthcare systems. She cited widening infrastructure deficits, a paucity of skilled healthcare personnel, and the scaling back of essential maternal and child health initiatives as central challenges exacerbated by diminishing budgets.
“Women and children remain the most disproportionately affected by these cuts,” Dr Bataringaya stated. “When funding dries up, the first casualties are often maternal health programmes and paediatric research, both of which are critical to survival and equity.”
According to the Botswana Ministry of Health, the nation’s maternal mortality ratio stood at 175.5 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022—more than double the WHO’s target of 70 deaths per 100,000 by 2030. Trends from 2015 to the present indicate fluctuating but consistently elevated mortality figures, ranging from 127 to 240, reflecting persistent structural and systemic impediments to progress.
Addressing the gathering, Acting Minister of Health Mr Lawrence Ookeditse called for a reinvigoration of antenatal care coverage, increased promotion of safe delivery practices, robust HIV testing, and improved management of pregnancy-related complications.
“These interventions are not optional,” Mr Ookeditse noted. “They are imperative to safeguarding mothers and their newborns and ensuring we remain aligned with international health commitments.”
Health officials and development stakeholders are now urging for sustained international and domestic investment, policy prioritisation at the national level, and a recalibration of focus towards grassroots healthcare delivery. Such measures, they argue, are necessary to shield the continent’s most vulnerable from further marginalisation amid an increasingly fragile global funding environment.
World Health Day, commemorated annually on 7 April, marks the establishment of the World Health Organization in 1948 and serves as a global platform to highlight urgent public health concerns. The 2025 theme, Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures, calls attention to the indispensable role of maternal and neonatal health in achieving equitable health outcomes.
