The purpose of the Malaria in Pregnancy Working Group (MiPWG) is to align RBM partners on best practices and lessons learned in MiP programming to help achieve higher coverage in MiP interventions globally.
Malaria in pregnancy contributes to 10,000 maternal deaths each year. It is also responsible for approximately 100,000 newborn deaths globally and 11% of newborn deaths and 20% of stillbirths in sub-Saharan Africa. While some countries across sub-Saharan Africa have made good progress towards increasing coverage of MiP interventions, the majority of countries are far from achieving target goals. The 2015, World Malaria Report revealed 52% of eligible pregnant women received at least one dose of IPTp-SP and 17% received 3 doses. According to a 2015 Global Call to Action seminar report, ITN use among pregnant women is 38 %. This indicates more needs to be done to increase the coverage of integrated, quality MiP programming and achieve better health outcomes for mothers and newborns.
The MiPWG’s diverse partnership, made up of Ministry of Health leaders from both national reproductive health programs and national malaria control programs, technical partners, researchers and donors positions the WG to uniquely bridge global policy to country practice to support acceleration of MiP program implementation.
