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Former President of Tanzania, Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, has stated that Africa’s inability to prevent maternal deaths is not due to a lack of medical solutions but a failure to implement proven interventions.
Speaking at a high-level interactive policy dialogue on “Advancing Africa’s Health Agenda through Domestic Financing, Accountability, and Strategic Innovations” on the margins of the African Union Extraordinary Summit on Health, Dr Kikwete said the continent has the knowledge, medicines, and technologies required to prevent most pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths.
He said the continued loss of mothers reflects weaknesses in political commitment, financing, and healthcare delivery systems.
“Globally, every year, 360,000 women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Sadly, nearly 70% of these women happen to be African women,” Dr Kikwete said.
“It is difficult to comprehend how possible in the 21st century this is happening. We all know this is the time when the world possesses the knowledge, medicines and technologies to prevent most of this death.”
The former Tanzanian leader, who is the Patron and RMNCAH and Sustainable Health Financing Champion, said Africa’s maternal health crisis should be treated as an implementation challenge rather than a scientific one.
“I am inclined to believe that this is not a scientific failure but rather an implementation failure and political will,” he said.
According to him, the continent must now focus on ensuring that available solutions move beyond research papers, conferences, and pilot projects into communities where mothers and newborns need them most.
Affordable solutions available
Dr Kikwete said several low-cost health innovations have the potential to save millions of lives if deployed effectively.
He referenced research and development initiatives that have identified frontline interventions, including tools to prevent postpartum haemorrhage and improved newborn care approaches.
“These tools could save close to two million mothers and babies by the year 2030, and more than six million by 2040,” he said.
He stressed that the priority for African leaders should be scaling up these interventions through stronger financing and improved healthcare systems.
“The challenge before the summit, therefore, is not invention, but deployment. Moving these innovations out of conference presentations and pilot projects into the hands of nurses, midwives and community health workers who save lives every day is the correct way to go,” he said.
Tanzania’s maternal mortality reduction
Dr Kikwete highlighted Tanzania’s progress in reducing maternal deaths, attributing the gains to evidence-based planning, financing, and collaboration between government and health institutions.
He said his foundation worked with Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and national research institutions to map maternal and newborn health challenges and establish a National Scientific Conference on Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health.
The conference brought together about 1,000 practitioners from national, regional and district levels to examine the causes of maternal deaths and develop strategies to address them.
He said the initiative contributed to reducing Tanzania’s maternal mortality rate from more than 550 deaths per 100,000 live births to 104 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The country is now working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing maternal deaths to 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
Dr Kikwete said the achievement proves that progress is possible when evidence guides investment and resources reach frontline health workers.
“When mothers return home safely, it is because financing, evidence, and delivery were finally made to meet,” he said.
Health financing must translate into services
The former president also urged governments to redefine how health financing success is measured.
He said citizens are less concerned about budget percentages and GDP allocations and are more interested in whether hospitals have medicines, healthcare workers, and diagnostic services.
“Citizens do not measure health financing in percentages of GDP. They measure whether medicines are on the shelf, whether they go to the hospital and are diagnosed, and whether there is a health worker present to take care of them,” he said.
Dr Kikwete called for stronger accountability in health spending, warning that waste and inefficiency continue to limit the impact of available resources.
“There are problems of financing, but there is a lot of waste. If there is proper spending and accountability, the little that we have can have an impact,” he said.
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