It is imperative that the reduction in sexually transmitted HIV infections in East and Southern Africa be fast-tracked if countries in the region are to achieve the overarching global HIV targets agreed for 2030. In support of UNAIDS, the lead UN agency on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, UNFPA has drawn up a framework to guide HIV prevention for the next 10 years in the region.

“A 35-year-old pregnant woman came to our clinic with abdominal pain,” recalled Hawrin Yousif, a midwife in the Khazir displacement camp in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. “After conducting a medical check-up, I understood that she urgently needed to be taken to the maternity hospital in Erbil.” 

The State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 builds on previous reports in the SoWMy series and represents an unprecedented effort to document the whole world’s Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Adolescent Health workforce, with a focus on midwives. It calls for urgent investment in midwives to enable them to fulfil their potential.