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Every Woman Every Newborn EverywherE
Healthy Futures

Country action

Sierra Leone

© WHO/Hickmatu Leigh> Nurses during an administrative meeting at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone in June 2022.

Every Woman Every Newborn in Sierra Leone

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 Sierra Leone profile

© WHO/Hickmatu Leigh Magdalene (left) tutors a newly admitted midwifery student, Massah, about family planning methods, specifically the use of male and female condoms, 2022.

National mortality targets

Maternal
mortality ratio

300 per 100,000 live births
by 2025

Stillbirth
rate

12 per 1,000 live births
by 2030

Neonatal mortality rate

12 per 1,000 live births
by 2030

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

© WHO/Hickmatu Leigh 2022. A laboratory technician conducts testing for a pregnancy before recommending family planning and contraception to patients at the Marie Stopes International Clinic in Aberdeen, Freetown, Sierra Leone in June 2022.

Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets

MNH Acceleration Plan highlights

In 2024, the priorities in Sierra Leone’s MNH Acceleration Plan include:  

  • Develop a resource mobilization strategy (for both donor and domestic funding ) for accelerated reduction of maternal and newborn mortality    
  • Develop advocacy tools for sustained domestic investment in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, including vulnerable population groups.
  • Review, revise and prioritize free health care commodities for maternal and newborn health for national  procurement   
  • Enable electronic tracking of every pregnancy to monitor outcome and implement the electronic labour care guide.

© WHO/Hickmatu Leigh 2022.
A nurse sorts and takes record of morning after pills (an emergency contraceptive method) at the Marie Stopes International dispensary in June 2022.

© WHO/Hickmatu Leigh 2022. Mariatu and her husband Gibril at an antenatal care appointment at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone in June 2022.

Quality of care in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone 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). Sierra Leone’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:

  • A Quality RMNCH Strategic Roadmap is implemented, and a National Quality and Patient Safety Policy and roadmap are developed.
  • 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.
  • Respectful Maternity Care Guidelines and training materials were rolled out.
  • The institutionalization of clinical meetings, mortality reviews and near-miss reviews is prioritized, to strengthen facility-level surveillance and response to maternal and perinatal deaths.
  • Mechanisms for community participation were developed, with community engagement guidelines for quality care, community scorecards and dedicated community engagement programmes.  
  • A quality of care dashboard and a reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health Scorecard were introduced into the national DHIS 2 to collect, report and use quality of care indicators and strengthen routine measurement systems.

News and events

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Resources

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State of the world’s nursing report 2025

The 2025 edition of the State of the world’s nursing provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the nursing workforce. The report features new indicators on critical areas for nursing, such as education capacity, advanced practice nursing and remuneration, policy priorities and a compilation of data from each WHO region.

Country profiles reflect each country’s national data and are available for download from the WHO National Health Workforce Accounts data portal.

Read more and download the report

View Resource

Joint Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere and Child Survival Action on the impact of ODA cuts

Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere and Child Survival Action joint messages on the impact of ODA cuts on maternal, newborn and child health. Prepared for the 78th World Health Assembly, in May 2025.

View Resource

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:

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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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