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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

Country action

Country action

© UNICEF/Onafuwa.
A portrait of Ngozi Nwabunwannem and her baby, Goodluck at Otuocha Primary Healthcare Center, Anambra State, Nigeria, in June 2023.

Every Woman Every Newborn in Nigeria

Download the full profile with additional key demographics, progress against milestones, and more.

This profile was developed in November 2024, using data from 2021-2024. 

Download the full Nigeria profile
© UNICEF/Esiebo. A woman holds her infant at Father Matthias Health Care Centre in the town of Naka, in Gwer West, Benue State in April 2013.

National mortality targets

Maternal
mortality ratio

140 per 100,000 live births
by 2030

Stillbirth
rate

10 per 1,000 total births
by 2030

Neonatal mortality rate

15 per 1,000 live births
by 2030

Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets

© UNICEF/Onafuwa. Aisha Tukur Isyaku, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency takes a tour of the agency warehouse in Kaduna, Nigeria in June 2023.

Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets

MNH Acceleration Plan highlights

In 2024, Nigeria’s MNH Acceleration Plan is focusing on three priorities:

  • Advocate for and support the subnational levels to establish a Family health department, and reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent and elderly health plus nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) multi-stakeholder platforms in 18 States. Implementing the MNH Acceleration plan at the subnational level is critical in making impact in MNH activities. In the four states where these structures are in place, we see improved health indices.
  • Strengthen and harmonize all digital technologies for better monitoring and evaluation for maternal, perinatal and neonatal health services and deaths: for the country to measure performance in MNH activities, there is need for quality data from the services and lesson learnt from medical deaths audits.
  • Support forecasting, procurement and utilization of MNH commodities and technologies at all levels: The successful implementation of MNH activities is based on adequate availability of MNH commodities.

©UNICEF/Esiebo.
In April 2013 in Nigeria, Pregnant women wait to receive antenatal care at Gre West Government General Hospital in the town of Naka, in Gwer West, Benue State, Nigeria, in April 2013.

© UNICEF/Boman Rayanattu Adamamu, a midwife at Kwando primqry health care centre attends to a patient in November 2023.

Quality of care in Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the 11 countries that set-up the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network). Nigeria’s successes in improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health are essential to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths. These include:

  • The National Strategy on quality of care for maternal and newborn health  was developed and deployed, and a technical working group established to coordinate the quality of care activities at national level. Thanks to a similar structure at state level, the number of quality of care learning sites grew from 112 in 12 states to 208 in 24 states by end of 2022.
  • The World Health Organization’s standards to improve quality of maternal and newborn care, small and sick newborns care, and children and young adolescents care in health facilities are adopted.
  • The 62nd National council on health resolved to scale up quality of care implementation and this has drastically added a large number of sites called scale up sites which kept increasing by the day.
  • The National Quality of Care Learning Platform was deployed, providing information and updates on quality of care activities around the country.  The platform provides information for peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange among parties who support quality of care for reproductive, maternal, newborn, adolescent and elderly health plus nutrition (RMNCAEH+N)
  • A national maternal and perinatal death sruveillance and response MPDSR bill passed by Parliament provides a protective legal environment for MPDSR to safeguard its “no name, no blame” ethos and the confidentiality of information, without impeding the rights of deceased’s families to seek legal redress.

News and events

Maternity Matters:

May 16, 2025

Devex, in partnership with MSD for Mothers and EWENE, is hosting an event on the sidelines of the 78th World Health Assembly to explore how to accelerate progress in maternal and newborn survival.

Read more
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Resources

View Resources

The Midwifery Accelerator: Expanding health care for women and newborns

Investing in midwives is a cost-effective and sustainable strategy to improve maternal and newborn health and well-being and reduce mortality. There is ample evidence to show that care provided by midwives is women centric, significantly advances maternal and newborn health outcomes, strengthens health systems, and helps build future healthier generations.

The Midwifery Accelerator: Expanding Quality Care for Women and Newborns —developed in consultation with governments, global experts, UN agencies, civil society, and providers—calls on governments, funders and other stakeholders to invest in midwifery care to save and transform the lives of women and their newborns around the world.

Download the Midwifery Accelerator

See also:

View Resource

Trends in maternal mortality estimates 2000 to 2023: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and UNDESA/Population Division

This report presents internationally comparable global-, regional- and country-level estimates and trends for maternal mortality between 2000 and 2023. A total of 195 countries and territories met the criteria to be included the data analyses and in the results presented in this report. This is the second report to present estimates and trends for maternal mortality for years that fall within the SDG reporting period, covering the first eight years of the 15-year period, from the start of 2016 until the end of 2023.

View Resource

Levels and trends in child mortality, 2024

Since 2000, the global under-five mortality rate has declined by 528 per cent, reflecting an immense collective effort by governments, donors and communities. This progress represents millions of lives saved – children who have had the chance to grow, learn and contribute to their communities and society as a whole.

Nevertheless, the most recent estimates on under-five mortality leave little doubt that the journey to ending all preventable child deaths is far from over. In 2023 alone, 4.8 (4.5– 5.3)9 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable causes.

This report by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation provides the latest data and trends on child mortality. It calls on governement, donors and partners for greater political will to end preventable child mortality.

Download the report

View Resource

Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

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Photo © 2020 WHO / Tatiana Almeida
Midwives during WHO Head of Sub-Office Dr Kai von Harbou visit to Hope Field Hospital

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