I am delighted to join our partners, the Liverpool of Tropical Medicine, Johnson and Johnson Global Health, the Kwara State Government and all stakeholders today as we disseminate the results and impact of our 5-year program to improve the availability and quality of maternal newborn care services delivered by health workers in Kwara State.

From the first moment I witnessed the impact of hands-on anatomically delivered simulation model training globally, I knew that building a community of well-practiced multi-disciplinary delivery teams could address the local frontline barriers to improving care services rapidly and whole-heartedly, at both the health system and societal level, in Nigeria.

Thus, in 2015, my WBFA leapt at the golden opportunity to partner together with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, CMNH-LSTM Nigeria and Johnson and Johnson Global Health to up-skill health care practitioners in the area of certificated Emergency Obstetric Care Skills and Drills. The main drive of the project pioneered across Kwara State, Nigeria, was to equip doctors, nurses and midwives so as to recalibrate a collective team and introduce the skills needed to overcome these obstetric emergencies.

With hopes to improve maternal health significantly, we have continued to identify and lift away the barriers that limit access, availability and quality of maternal and newborn health services. 

80% of all maternal deaths are as a result of five complications; all of which can- be managed by adequately trained healthcare professionals. 

Haemorrhages, sepsis, eclampsia, complications of abortion and obstructed labour are among the common attributional factors of maternal and neonatal complications, but they also contribute to mortality and morbidity, too. 

The introduction of specialist professional and regular training acts presents as a form of diligence while reinvigorating frontline workforce autonomy. 

As we focused our intervention on local government areas within the state with the largest population of women of reproductive age, we landed in Kwara located in north-central Nigeria, It’s 3 million inhabitants and an estimated 120,000 births per year, coupled with my own personal state-centred nostalgia and birth experience, made it the perfect beginning for such a dissemination of key skills and learning.

Through a partnership with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and with support from Johnson and Johnson Corporate Citizenship Trust, Wellbeing Foundation Africa implemented a project to increase the availability and quality of care for mothers and babies at public and private healthcare facilities in Kwara State, Nigeria.

Having sustained the early and encouraging impact being made by the introduction of EmONC skills and drills training, and expanding the program in 2018, we continued by paying joint advocacy visits to the Kwara State House of Assembly to advocate at the sub-national level for the training espoused by our EmONC program which was pioneering sustainable change across 21 public HCFs in the state. I hope that our strong evidence now demonstrates that anatomical models based skills and drills training must be recognised as a professional education curriculum requirement, and fast.

As we conclude the 5th year of this pioneering introduction in Kwara State, we now have convincing proof of a concept beyond suitable for whole nation deployment. The results are clear, we’ve recorded a 38% reduction in facility stillbirth rate since 2015, and we know that the improvements and upskilling in Kwara can, must and will inspire change across the country.

I thank our partners, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Centre For Maternal and Newborn Health, and Johnson and Johnson Global Health, for the trust and confidence invested in the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and United Nations Every Woman Every Child Commitments to the Global Strategy on Women and Childrens’ Health, which powered our partnership, and their arrival to Nigeria to implement such a significant program.

I beam with pride and with a grateful heart at the readiness demonstrated by a robust frontline, and look forward to the actualisation of a continuum of care that will contribute to the total zeroing of maternal and neonatal deaths in Nigeria. 

It is often said that the true test of innovation and impact is sustainable local engagement, so I am delighted that the partnership was able to establish skills laboratories and centres of excellence at selected facilities.

I congratulate our partners and the National Council of Nursing and Midwifery as the program impact progresses, again supported by Johnson and Johnson Global Health, on the strategic and intentional path towards national pre-service training scale.

Towards holistically aligning and guaranteeing mothers access to higher quality respectful maternity care, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues to strengthen, deepen and widen its independent community midwifery-led Mamacare Antenatal and Postnatal Education Program, educating expectant and nursing mothers, ensuring they access and achieve the WHO recommended 8-visits throughout their childbirth journey – with the confidence of knowing that their professionally qualified delivery attendants are upskilled to deliver a safe, healthy and therefore happy outcome.

We must continue on the quest to lift and leap over barriers, to deliver new life safely, and ultimately save millions more lives.

Thank you all.