An estimated 287 000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2020. For every death, many more face severe morbidity and disability that have long-term effects on women and their families.

In 2015, the Strategies for Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) outlined targets for the Sustainable Development Goals and broad strategies for strengthening maternal health programmes.  The EPMM strategies are grounded in a human rights approach to maternal and newborn health and focus on eliminating significant inequities that lead to disparities in access, quality and outcomes of care within and between countries.

Guiding principles for EPMM

• Empower women, girls and communities.
• Protect and support the mother-baby dyad.
• Ensure country ownership, leadership and supportive legal, regulatory and financial frameworks.
• Apply a human rights framework to ensure that high-quality reproductive, maternal and newborn health care is available, accessible and acceptable to all who need it.

Cross-cutting actions for EPMM

• Improve metrics, measurement systems and data quality to ensure that all maternal and newborn deaths are counted
• Allocate adequate resources and effective health care financing

Five strategic objectives for EPMM

• Address inequities in access to and quality of sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health care
• Ensure universal health coverage for comprehensive sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health care
• Address all causes of maternal mortality, reproductive and maternal morbidities, and related disabilities
• Strengthen health systems to respond to the needs and priorities of women and girls
• Ensure accountability to improve quality of care and equity

In 2020, EPMM, co-chaired by WHO and UNFPA, and partners joined efforts with a renewed focus on working with countries to accelerate progress towards improving maternal survival and wellbeing by using evidence-based knowledge and tools. In October 2021, EPMM coverage targets and milestones were launched to achieve by 2025.  Since health of women and of their newborns are inextricably linked, EPMM closely collaborates with Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) in rolling out the activities at national, regional and global levels. 

By 2030, all countries should reduce MMR by at least two thirds of their 2010 baseline level. The average global target is an MMR of less than 70/100 000 live births by 2030. The supplementary national target is that no country should have an MMR greater than 140/100 000 live births (a number twice the global target) by 2030.