I welcome World Breastfeeding Week 2026, observed from 1 to 7 August under the theme Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works, coordinated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action @WABA_Global with the @WHO and @UNICEF, and anchored this year in tracking progress across nutrition, food security and poverty reduction.

The week opens with the updated global investment case released by the Global Breastfeeding Collective, commissioned by WHO and UNICEF and produced by @NutritionIntl. It finds that scaling proven breastfeeding support to 75 per cent coverage in high burden countries over the coming decade would avert up to 263,000 child deaths and generate up to US$357 billion in economic gains, delivering returns of up to US$59 for every US$1 invested, driven largely by improvements in cognitive development, education outcomes and lifetime productivity. The cost of continued underinvestment is measured with equal precision, at US$339 billion in losses each year.

In Nigeria, exclusive breastfeeding has stagnated at 29 per cent and early initiation within the first hour has declined from 42 to 36 per cent, according to the National Demographic and Health Survey 2023 to 2024. I take the view that the gap before us is one of financing, accountability and enforcement rather than of evidence, which is why the midwives and nurses of the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation continue to deliver skilled infant and young child feeding counselling through our MamaCare360 antenatal and postnatal classes, in the communities where such counselling is least available and most needed.

My hope for this week, which is to close the distance between declaration and delivery, rests on the six priorities set out by the Collective. To protect through full enforcement of the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes, to deliver through Baby Friendly Hospitals and skilled counselling, to enable through families and communities, to finance through sustained domestic investment, to scale through comprehensive national packages, and to partner, because no single actor can close the breastfeeding investment gap alone.

#WBW2026
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today the world observes the International Day of Friendship, proclaimed by the @UnitedNations General Assembly in 2011 in recognition that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals holds the capacity to inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.

The observance proceeds from the normative direction set by @UNESCO in its definition of the Culture of Peace, adopted in 1997 as a set of values, attitudes and behaviours which reject violence and address the root causes of conflict. Particular emphasis falls upon the participation of young people, as future leaders, in community activities that advance international understanding and respect for diversity.

Solidarity is a condition of effective multilateral cooperation, among them the shared governance of the resources upon which human survival depends, and it is the principle the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation applies through its frontline programming across Nigeria, in health facilities, in schools and in the networks it convenes with the communities it serves.

On this day I extend my warm regards to the friends, colleagues and partners with whom that work is shared, across countries and institutions, whose companionship has made the pursuit of health, dignity and peace a common undertaking.

📸: UN 2023 Water Conference, United Nations Headquarters, New York, March 2023

#InternationalDayOfFriendship
#CultureOfPeace
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today I observe World Hepatitis Day under the theme Hepatitis: Let’s Break It Down, an appeal to remove the barriers separating populations from interventions of proven efficacy.

The @WHO Global Hepatitis Report 2026 documents 287 million people living with chronic hepatitis B or hepatitis C infection in 2024, and 1.3 million deaths attributable to those infections. Hepatitis B-related deaths rose by 17% between 2015 and 2024, notwithstanding a vaccine of approximately 95% efficacy available since the early 1990s. Timely birth dose coverage stood at 45% globally against a 2030 target of 90%, and at 17% in the @WHO_Africa Region, which accounted for 68% of new infections.

The deficit is one of delivery rather than science, concentrated in the hours surrounding birth. A vaccine conferring lifelong protection is of no consequence to a newborn whose mother was never screened, never counselled on what the birth dose prevents, or never supported to deliver where that dose is available within 24 hours.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our #MamaCare360 WBFA Midwives address this gap in every class, fostering the health literacy and trust through which women understand their hepatitis B status, take up antenatal screening, complete antiviral prophylaxis where eligible, and present for facility delivery so that their newborns receive a timely birth dose.

This demand for triple elimination of human immunodeficiency virus, syphilis and hepatitis B virus holds only where the commodities behind it remain affordable and simple to deliver at primary care level, which is the object of @Unitaid’s SAFEStart+ investment in integrated elimination of vertical transmission and of the implementation work of @PathGlobalHealth.

The WHO is explicit that lasting progress depends upon the leadership and participation of communities and civil society, among them the strengthening of partnerships with governments and health providers to deliver people-centred and equitable hepatitis responses, which is the standard to which every actor in this response must now be held before 2030.

#WorldHepatitisDay
#HepatitisLetsBreakItDown
#TripleElimination
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, on the International Day for #WomenandGirlsofAfricanDescent, dedicated this year to the right to health, a fundamental right still denied to far too many, I join the global community in honouring the strength, brilliance and leadership of women and girls of African descent, who continue to navigate systemic barriers to quality healthcare, education and representation, yet who continue to rise, leading movements, fighting for justice, and breaking cycles of exclusion.

The evidence before us is compelling, for the Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap, published by the @WorldEconomicForum with the McKinsey Health Institute, finds that women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, and that closing this gap could unlock more than one trillion dollars in annual global gross domestic product by 2040. As a World Economic Forum Champion of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health and a contributor to this body of work, I was honoured last year, on World Health Day, to deliver the keynote address at the McKinsey Roundtable on Closing the Women’s Health Gap in Africa, convened in Lagos, carrying the voices of African women and girls into a dialogue determined to translate evidence into equity.

At my @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, this determination lives on the frontline each day, where our HPV vaccination drives protect girls from cervical cancer, our #PSHE and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene #WASH programmes in schools, including menstrual hygiene education, equip adolescent girls with knowledge, dignity and confidence, and our midwife-led MamaCare360 teams deliver respectful maternal care, breast cancer screening, hygiene promotion and mental health support across Nigeria.

On this day, the imperative is that governments, partners and health leaders secure this right through equitably financed health systems, respectful and culturally attuned maternal care, robust disaggregated data, and the meaningful participation of women and girls of African descent in shaping the policies that govern their health and wellbeing, for their health is their right, and until it is delivered in full, our work continues.

#RightToHealth ...

On International Self-Care Day, observed on the 24th of July to symbolise self-care practised twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, I wish to highlight self-care as an essential pillar of preventive healthcare, and its growing significance as a pathway to efficiency, equity and resilience in the prevention of non-communicable diseases for health systems globally.

The @WHO defines self-care as the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability, with or without the support of a healthcare provider. The Global Self-Care Federation’s 2026 Global Social and Economic Value of Self-Care Report, launched this week in Geneva, finds that self-care generates 144 billion United States dollars in health system savings and 24 million quality-adjusted life years each year, and could deliver social and economic benefits up to 50% greater by 2040 where supportive policies on health literacy, access to quality-assured products and integration into national health strategies are in place.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, our frontline programming, which reinforces self-care as a key tool against antimicrobial resistance, has demonstrated that when mothers, families and communities are equipped with accurate health knowledge and skills to apply it, self-care becomes a functioning first tier of the health system, easing pressure on facilities and the workforce while improving outcomes across the reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health continuum, and that prevention, practised daily and at scale, remains the most powerful instrument for nations seeking health for all.

As health systems contend with ageing populations, the rising burden of NCDs and constrained public budgets, I call on governments and partners to embed self-care within primary healthcare and universal health coverage frameworks, to invest in health literacy and ensure equitable access to the quality-assured tools and services that enable every individual to be the first guardian of their own health.

#ValueOfSelfCare
#InternationalSelfCareDay
#WellbeingForAll
#FrontlineFriday ...

Yesterday evening in New York, The Toyin Saraki Global Policy and Philanthropy Office and the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation were represented at the @UnitedNations Town Hall, The Next Secretary-General, convened in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters by the President of the General Assembly @UNPGA, H.E. @ABaerbock, with the support of @Bloomberg as global media partner. WBFA was present in the Foundation’s capacity as a holder of Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council @UN_ECOSOC.

The Town Hall assembled the six candidates seeking to succeed Secretary-General @AntonioGuterres, namely H.E. Michelle Bachelet of Chile, H.E. María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Director General Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and H.E. Macky Sall of Senegal, each responding to questions from diplomats, United Nations staff and civil society ahead of the Security Council’s first informal ballot on 30 July.

The selection of the next Secretary-General bears directly upon the health and wellbeing of the mothers, newborns, children, adolescents, families and communities whom the Wellbeing Foundation Africa serves across Nigeria and the wider African continent, and upon the midwives, nurses and frontline health workers upon whom their care depends. Our presence within the Hall gave expression to our abiding conviction that their voices must be heard wherever the future of multilateralism is deliberated.

As the United Nations prepares to entrust its highest office to new stewardship, we invite all Member States to weigh each candidate’s dedication to universal health coverage, to the survival and flourishing of every mother and newborn, and to the full realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa stands ready to serve alongside the next Secretary-General in pursuit of a healthier, fairer and more peaceful world.

#UNSG
#WellbeingForAll
#FrontlineFriday ...

As a longstanding member of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health @PMNCH_Insta, a Board Observer and a member of its Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Workstream Group, I welcome the launch of the PMNCH Financing Campaign, Lives in Balance, Finance the Promise, #Act4WCA, a two-year global initiative to secure sustainable financing for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, placing country-led resource mobilisation, parliamentary accountability and the defence of development assistance at the centre of the global health agenda.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, official development assistance for health fell by 23.1% in 2025, the steepest single-year decline on record, even as a woman continues to die in pregnancy or childbirth every 2 minutes and 4.9 million children did not live to see their fifth birthday in 2024, as recorded by the @WHO and @UnitedNations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

The Partnership’s investment review shows that every US$1 invested in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health returns up to US$20 in economic and social value, while the projected cost of failing to invest in adolescent wellbeing approaches US$110 trillion by 2050.

I am encouraged that Nigeria stands among the 5 initial campaign countries for domestic resource mobilisation, alongside Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia, terrain we at the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation know through our frontline programming and advocacy for health workforce investment and quality care. Domestic financing anchored in political accountability offers the strongest and most sustainable foundation, and this campaign equips national coalitions to carry that argument into ministries of finance and parliaments alike.

The promise has been made and the resources must now follow, so I call upon governments, parliamentarians, donors, multilateral institutions, civil society and private sector partners to finance the futures of women, children and adolescents everywhere. Join us at act4wca.org.

#PMNCH
#WCAH
#PartnershipForChange
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, on Nelson Mandela International Day, the world unites under the theme “It’s Still in Our Hands to Combat Poverty and Inequity,” as Madiba reminded us that “it is in your hands to make our world a better one for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalised,” and it is in that spirit that we continue our commitment to the mothers, newborns, adolescents and frontline health workers at the centre of our @WellbeingAfrica mission.

The @WHO reports that sub-Saharan Africa bears approximately seventy per cent of global maternal deaths, while World Bank estimates show close to 700 million people still living in extreme poverty. Poverty and poor health are inseparable, and no nation can prosper while its women and children are denied quality care.

At #WBFA, we answer Madiba’s call by advancing universal health coverage, primary healthcare, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, water, sanitation and hygiene, and the education and equipping of the frontline health workforce, so that no woman, child or community is left behind.

This Mandela Day, I call on governments and partners to finance health systems with urgency, invest in midwives and nurses, and measure progress by the wellbeing of the most vulnerable. It is still in our hands.

#MandelaDay
#ItsInOurHands
#HealthForAll
#WellbeingForAll ...

In condolence, I visited the Rhodes-Vivour family following the call to glory of the late Mrs Nkechi Stella Rhodes-Vivour (née Waboso), a beloved wife, devoted mother and grandmother, remembered by all as the epitome of love.

A life so well spent finds no finer measure than to be mourned so tenderly, and cherished so deeply, by those who knew and loved this remarkable matriarch.

My sympathies remain with the entire Rhodes-Vivour family at this time of loss. May her beautiful soul rest in perfect peace. Amen. ...

Yesterday in Lagos, I was delighted to visit Hayat Kimya Nigeria alongside our social impact partners at @ReckittNigeria and the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation’s Lagos Directors and Programme Team, where I met with Managing Director Mr Mohammad Asim Khan to discuss a shared agenda on menstrual health and newborn hygiene.

Hayat’s commitment to Nigeria is a model of purposeful investment. Its manufacturing plant in Agbara, Ogun State, has created jobs, earned market leadership through quality, and made Nigeria an export hub for West and Central Africa, placing trusted products in the daily lives of families from a baby’s first days to a girl’s school years.

Research published in Frontiers in Reproductive Health in 2025 found that more than half of school-age girls in Nigeria miss school each month because sanitary products are unaffordable or unavailable, a gap the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s midwives and educators work to close every day, in the facilities where newborns take their first breath and the classrooms where girls deserve to learn without interruption.

From the newborn to the adolescent girl, dignity and health begin with the essentials. I look forward to what we will build together.

#NewbornHealth
#MenstrualHealth
#WellbeingForAll ...

Today, on #MalalaDay, we mark thirteen years since @Malala Yousafzai stood before the @UnitedNations on her sixteenth birthday and called upon world leaders to protect every girl’s right to education. It was an honour to join Malala in Abuja in 2023, at the United Nations House, during her third visit to Nigeria, where young advocates and civil society leaders gathered to renew our shared commitment to the girls of Nigeria and of Africa.

That commitment must be matched with action, for Malala Fund reports that more than 122 million girls remain out of school worldwide, even though a girl with an education can help grow economies, with the global economy standing to gain between 15 and 30 trillion dollars in productivity and earnings each year if every girl completed secondary school. Working alongside local activists, educators, and advocates, Malala Fund has reached 26 million students with education access and resources, and has helped unlock 7 billion dollars for girls’ education since 2013, yet each girl still excluded represents a future leader, thinker, and builder the world has yet to meet.

At the @WellbeingAfrica Foundation, we have always understood that a girl’s education and her health are inseparable, which is why our WBFA Adolescent Skills and Drills Programme sees frontline midwives and nurses deliver personal, social, health and economic education across Nigeria, equipping girls with the knowledge and life skills to stay in school and in good health.

Education makes economies stronger, communities healthier, and nations more resilient. On this day, I join @MalalaFund in recommitting to a future where every girl can learn and choose what comes next for her, and I call upon governments and partners across Africa to invest in the policies, teachers, healthcare workers and safe schools that will carry every girl through twelve years of free, safe, and quality education.

#MalalaDay2026
#WellbeingForAll ...