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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

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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

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Resources

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Compendium on respectful maternal and newborn care

The compendium supports efforts to end mistreatment and achieve respectful maternal and newborn care. It is published by WHO together with UNFPA, UNICEF and the United Nations’ Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), with support from Jhpiego and the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership programme. 

The purpose of the compendium is to consolidate key evidence, tools and resources to support the practical implementation of respectful maternal and newborn care across different contexts. It provides programme managers with essential background to build a foundational understanding of mistreatment and respectful care. As such, it serves as a comprehensive resource that integrates theory with practice.

View Resource

Maternal and Newborn Health Fund Annual Impact Report 2024

Since 2010, countries supported by the Maternal and Newborn Health Fund have reduced maternal mortality by 40%, nearly twice the global rate, contributing to avert an estimated 75,000 maternal deaths. The Maternal and Newborn Health Fund is UNFPA’s flagship initiative to expand equitable access to quality reproductive, maternal, and newborn healthcare.

The Fund’s Annual Impact Report 2024, released this month, details significant progress in reducing maternal and newborn mortality in 32 priority countries. In particular, the report highlights the impact of training and deploying midwives, enhancing emergency obstetric and newborn care, supporting national maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response systems and providing surgical fistula repair.

Download the report

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Programme manager’s handbook for maternal, child and adolescent health

The World Health Organization maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health e-handbook is a new resource for Ministry of health programme managers. It offers  step-by-step guidance for implementing effective health programmes, from planning to monitoring and evaluation, with concise overviews of key activities and interventions along the life course.  The e-handbook references WHO documents, to ensure that programme managers have access to evidence-based strategies and best practices tailored to various contexts.

This e-handbook contains a prioritised list of documents; for a full list of documents go to the resource library for maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and ageing: https://uhcc.who.int/mca/

View Resource

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Midwives during WHO Head of Sub-Office Dr Kai von Harbou visit to Hope Field Hospital

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