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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

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Quality of care

© UNFPA/Eduard Bîz.
Valentina, from Odessa, Ukraine, while in labour at the Municipal Clinical Hospital Nr.1 from Chisinau, Moldova,  in April 2022.

There has been an unprecedented improvement in access to essential care and services in the past ten years; yet, women, adolescent girls and babies continue to die at an unacceptable rate during pregnancy, childbirth and the first month after birth.

The culprit is the quality of the care they receive. In fact, poor-quality care is responsible for more deaths than lack of access to care in low-and middle income countries.

‘Quite honestly, there can be no universal health coverage without quality care.

– World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

©UNFPA/Luis Tato.
Yvonne (right) waits along with other pregnant women to be attended by a midwife prior to a screening with portable ultrasound technology at Ntimaru Sub County Level 4 Hospital in Kehancha, Migori County, Kenya in June 2022.

Quality health services provide care that is:

The World Health Organization released in 2016 a Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Quality of Care Standards Framework detailing the components of quality care and what it takes to implement it:

Many countries are building quality into their health systems,  an arduous process to change at national, subnational and community levels the way health services are designed – with the engagement of the communities they serve – and provided. 

Improving quality of care requires:

  • Good governance;
  • A skilled and competent health workforce that is supported and motivated;
  • Financing mechanisms that enable and encourage quality care;
  • Medicines, devices and technologies that are available, safe and appropriately regulated;
  • Accessible and well-equipped healthcare facilities.

See also the work of the Quality of Care Network.

Source: Quality of Care, World Health Organization https://www.who.int/health-topics/quality-of-care.

The impact

  • Improved quality of care could save up to 1 million newborn and 150,000 women lives each year*.
  • 60% of deaths in low-and-middle income countries from conditions requiring healthcare are due to poor quality care.**
  • An estimated 1.8 billion people (24% of the world’s population), live in fragile contexts that struggle to deliver quality essential health services. A large proportion of preventable maternal, childhood and neonatal deaths occur in these settings***.

* The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era.
**  and *** Key data https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/quality-health-services.

Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere calls for quality care as an essential step to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths.

©UNFPA/Zaeem Abdul Rahman.
A midwife, who is supported by the UNFPA Mobile Health Team, providing services to a patient in the earthquake affected Gayan District, Paktika, Afghanistan, in July 2022.

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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

Explore further and accelerate change

Quality of care

Health workforce – Midwifery

Commodities

Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response

Quality of Care Network

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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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