By Emma Black
As dawn breaks across Sierra Leone, the quiet resilience of women becomes the truest reflection of a nation’s aspirations. In rural clinics, from Alkalia in the north where dedicated health workers welcome new life amid limited resources to the hopeful communities of Pujehun in the south, where midwives embody dignity and care, the story of progress unfolds with each woman’s journey, yet, this progress remains fragile, often resting on how well we protect and promote the health and rights of women and girls.
Across Sierra Leone and around the world, women’s lives marked by both hardship and triumph shape not only their own futures but the destiny of their communities and countries, this truth is especially urgent for adolescent girls and young women, whose futures depend on the choices we make today about their health, safety, and opportunity.
At the heart of this mission stands the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN agency committed to ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, over the years, UNFPA has been a steadfast partner to Sierra Leone in its fight to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and strengthen the health system.
In 2021, for example, UNFPA supported the ministry of health by providing life-saving equipment for emergency obstetric and neonatal care, along with tools to screen and manage cervical cancer. By early 2023, it had delivered reproductive health commodities valued at more than $576,000 ensuring women and girls across the country had access to modern family planning methods. In 2024 alone, UNFPA’s support included the delivery of 2.5 million condoms and the extensive training of midwives’ clear proof of its central role in advancing reproductive health in Sierra Leone.
Midwives, in particular, are key to achieving many of the sustainable development Goal 3 targets: reducing maternal mortality, preventing child deaths, ensuring access to reproductive health services, and achieving universal health coverage, their impact is undeniable, according to UN estimates, Sierra Leone has seen a remarkable 74% decline in maternal mortality since 2000 a feat made possible only through consistent international and national investment.
This progress is a reminder that global solidarity matters, development partners have helped bridge critical gaps in healthcare, enabling real progress toward the UN Sustainable development goals. But these hard-won gains remain at risk.
At a recent expert consultation convened by UNFPA on ending preventable maternal deaths in West and Central Africa, the agency’s Regional Director, Dr. Sennen Hounton, stressed a vital truth: maternal health cannot be separated from broader development challenges, from climate change to education and food security, progress in any sector is impossible without safeguarding the health and survival of women and girls, when women thrive, nations thrive.
In this context, the United States’ recent decision to withdraw its annual $180 million in funding from UNFPA is deeply troubling, this funding supports life-saving interventions for millions of women and girls worldwide, especially in vulnerable countries like Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, without it, the future of essential maternal and reproductive health services hangs in the balance.
Sierra Leone’s own success in reducing maternal mortality from 837 to 443 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2010 and 2020 is a testament to what sustained support can achieve, the US has long been a global leader in advancing health and human rights, reversing this funding decision would not only endanger progress but also place countless lives at risk.
Yet the responsibility does not lie with international partners alone. National governments must also rise to the challenge; it is time to prioritize maternal and reproductive health through increased domestic investment and stronger policy implementation. greater health budget allocations and sustained leadership are essential to fill remaining gaps and secure the gains we’ve made.
The hope of every woman every mother, every girl should not be a fragile promise, it should be a right, protected by action and furled by commitment, the path to a just and thriving society begins with her: her health, her dignity, her future.
Copy right –Printed in the Expo Times News on Friday, May 23rd, 2025 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
