SOAS University of London backs Wellbeing Foundation Africa Midwife Campaign

18th May 2018

SOAS University of London has partnered with the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) to portray the critical role played by midwives in saving lives around the world, and enabling both mother and baby to thrive.

This partnership between SOAS and the Wellbeing Foundation Africa is part of a global effort to give a platform to midwives’ voices – in line with the International Confederation of Midwives’ campaign to tell the story of midwives across the world and use their experiences to inform global health policy.

H.E. Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, commented: “The role of midwives across the world transcends their work to improve the lives of women and their new-borns, creating possibilities for communities, cities and even nations to achieve better health and standards of living. I am delighted to see our partnership with SOAS, University of London, illustrating the profound impact of midwives in the world of academia and building partnerships to improve global health policy.”

SOAS Senior Professor Antonio Andreoni commented: “Sub-Saharan Africa needs over 550,000 additional midwives to satisfy the demand for their services. The importance of midwives in saving lives and ameliorating infrastructural and institutional constraints cannot be understated.”

Dr Luca Tasciotti, Lecturer in Economics, said: “Every year more than a third of a million women and girls die in pregnancy or childbirth. Pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality have social and economic consequences, which negatively affect the overall global productivity of the country and stunt the quality of life of the households. The presence of midwives is fundamental in reducing the millions of new born and maternal deaths.”

Other scholars who took part were Dr Pallavi Roy, Lecturer in International Economics, CISD and Research Director, Anti-Corruption Evidence Consortium, Dr Antonio Andreoni, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Research Director, Anti-Corruption Evidence Consortium and MSc Global Ecomomic Governance and Policy student Aziz Hammad. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa commends the efforts from SOAS to illustrate the importance of midwives and to continue a long-standing and extensive partnership with the Foundation in order to, through combined efforts, continue on the road towards achieving a better world for mothers and their children.



https://www.soas.ac.uk/news/newsitem130355.html