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AU Champion for Maternal and Child Health — Go the Extra Mile
H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan cradling a sleeping newborn, looking down at the baby

African Union Champion · 2026–2030

Three Zeros. One continental promise.

Almost every maternal and newborn death in Africa is preventable, and the interventions that prevent them are known, costed and proven on this continent. This is the Roadmap for delivering them by 2030 — and the public record of what it achieves.

70%
of global maternal deaths occur in AfricaRoadmap 1.1
442
maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — the continental ratioMMEIG, 2025
40%
of child mortality in Africa is newborn deathsRoadmap 1.1
The Three ZerosThe Scorecard

Jiongeze Tuwavushe Salama.

A mandate given by Heads of State

At the February 2026 Assembly, the African Union appointed H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, as its Champion for Maternal and Child Health under Decision AU/Dec.25(XXXIX). This site is the public record of that mandate: the Roadmap it rests on, and the two numbers it is accountable for.

The Roadmap is a political leadership and delivery-acceleration framework, not a new policy or a parallel programme. It supports all 55 Member States to translate commitments they have already made into financed, accountable implementation.

The mandate in full

The political promise

Three Zeros by 2030

Each Zero converts a continental target into a promise citizens can hold their leaders to, and each is a stress test of the same five system functions: community coverage, access and referral, quality of care, commodities, and data and accountability.

  1. 01

    Zero Home Delivery

    Every birth, a safe birth.

    Every birth is managed by skilled health personnel in a properly equipped medical environment, supported by timely access to a functional emergency referral pathway.

    Measured by

    Births occurring in a health facility with skilled attendance

    The pathway to this Zero
  2. 02

    Zero Preventable Maternal and Newborn Deaths

    Every death counts. Every death is acted upon.

    No mother or newborn dies from a cause preventable through timely, quality, evidence-based care. This requires effective care across the continuum, from adolescent and reproductive health through pregnancy, childbirth, emergency care and the postnatal period.

    Measured by

    Maternal Mortality Ratio · Neonatal Mortality Rate

    The pathway to this Zero
  3. 03

    Zero Unvaccinated Children

    Every child identified, reached and protected.

    No child is left without age-appropriate immunisation. The priority is to identify and reach zero-dose children and communities systematically missed by routine immunisation services.

    Measured by

    Age-appropriate immunisation coverage and zero-dose follow-up

    The pathway to this Zero
How the continent gets to zero

What is measured

Two numbers, published

This site reports the Maternal Mortality Ratio and the Neonatal Mortality Rate — the pairing the Roadmap uses as the headline measure for Zero Preventable Maternal and Newborn Deaths. Both are sourced, both cover all 55 Member States, and neither is a placeholder.

The President in a surgical gown beside a hospital bed where a mother holds her newborn
Continental figures against the SDG 3.1 and 3.2 targets
IndicatorToday2030 targetSource
Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)SDG 3.1442 across the continentBelow 70 by 2030MMEIG, 2025
Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR)SDG 3.27 of 55 Member States at or below the target12 or fewer by 2030UN IGME, 2025

Both figures are country-validated during 2026 and reported to the AU Summit. Where a Member State has no comparable UN estimate, the Scorecard says so rather than leaving the cell blank.

Accountability, in public

The Continental Scorecard

A seven-indicator Presidential RMNCAH Scorecard gives Heads of State a concise view of mortality, safe childbirth, service readiness, immunisation reach and financing. Country baselines are validated by Member States during 2026, then published whether or not they flatter.

Open the Scorecard
Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, by Member State
SDSudan25623.7
BFBurkina Faso24223.8
CGCongo24116.5
SNSenegal23720.9
GHGhana23418.1
GAGabon23316.3
Official portrait of H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania

Why a Head of State

The solutions are known. The priority is delivery.

Maternal and child survival is not a technical problem waiting for an invention. Skilled birth attendance, emergency obstetric and newborn care, vaccines and adolescent-responsive services are known, costed and proven on this continent.

What they need is political priority: budget lines defended, health workers deployed, results reported in public. Tanzania’s own record anchors the mandate — a reported maternal mortality ratio down from 556 to 104 between the 2015/16 and 2022 surveys, alongside facility deliveries up from 51% to 81%.

These are not slogans; they are measurable political commitments.

H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan
The mandate in full

The evidence

What a decade of delivery looks like

Tanzania’s record
The President, in a surgical gown and mask, greeting a mother resting with her newborn in a maternity ward

  1. Maternal mortality ratio

    556104

    per 100,000 live births · 2015/16 to 2022 TDHS

  2. Neonatal mortality

    2624

    per 1,000 live births · 2010 to 2022

  3. Facility deliveries

    51%81%

    of births · 2010 to 2022

  4. Skilled birth attendance

    49%85%

    of births · 2010 to 2022

What the record shows

Political leadership has greater impact when linked to measurable accountability.

Go the extra mile

The extra mile is a distance, and it is divisible.

It is the gap between what we already know saves a life and the woman or child who has not yet received it. Presidents, midwives, fathers and students each close a different part of it. Say which part is yours.

Make your pledge

No web access? Pledge on WhatsApp, or text PLEDGE to 15015.

The President greeting a group of children holding Tanzanian flags at a public event