Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal mortality ratio in the world-approximately 1,000 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. The neonatal mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa is the highest in the world with approximately 45 deaths per 1,000 live births. Without greater attention to maternal and neonatal health and implementation of effective interventions, mothers and newborns will continue to die from preventable and treatable conditions or suffer debilitating disabilities.

Africa's Health in 2010's approach to improving maternal and neonatal health focuses on promoting integrated essential maternal and newborn care from the household to the hospital with outreach to the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. Within this, the project focuses on policy initiatives including the promotion of evidence-based standards and guidelines, the development of policies, norms and protocols at the national level, and legislative change to strengthen the enabling environment for safe motherhood. The project also concentrates on performance and quality improvement approaches to strengthen service delivery and to link informed communities to care. Community involvement, through behavior change initiatives including mass media, social mobilization, and alliance building is central to the project's efforts to improve maternal and newborn health by linking informed/demanding communities to quality care.

The project provides technical assistance to African institutions, networks and other partners to:

• Document and synthesize best practices in community-based interventions, (e.g., integrating newborn care with Maternal and Child Health (MCH), Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV infection, and post-partum care
  
• Intensify evidence-based advocacy to show that MNCH community programs can achieve impact at scale
  
• Disease surveillance and epidemic response, including preparedness and response to avian influenza
  
• Raise awareness about the systems needed to underpin sustained community approaches
  
• Work with African and other organizations to strengthen social mobilization and behavior change communication (BCC), for example, targeting men and grandmothers to improve care-seeking, and social marketing of essential products for home prevention and treatment

Africa's Health in 2010 maternal and newborn health team focuses on the following priority areas:

• Awareness raising to mobilize resources and improve the policy environment
  
• Adoption of quality integrated maternal and newborn health (MNH) care
  
• Adoption of community approaches
  
• Strengthening African regional and national capacity to implement programs