Yaounde, Cameroon- Following the courtesy call granted by Dr. Manaouda Malachie, Minister of Public Health, to Dr. Sennen Hounton, UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, UNFPA retroceded to the Ministry of Public Health, information technology, medical and didactic equipment dedicated to 25 nursing and midwifery schools in Cameroon. The equipment was acquired by UNFPA under the Islamic Development Bank, as a testament to the organisation’s commitment supporting the government in curbing maternal and neonatal deaths through quality training of health personnel. 

Access to trained and qualified health personnel could significantly avert maternal and neonatal deaths presently at 406 deaths for 100,000 life births in Cameroon, with 69% of births attended by skilled health personnel. The Project for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission and Management of HIV in Children and Adolescents (PETVISIDAME), funded by the Islamic Development Bank, brings together various stakeholders with comparative advantages, among which UNFPA. Hence, the organisation is providing its technical expertise to improve midwifery initial training through accreditation by the International Confederation of Midwives. It further contributes to the strengthening of integrated service delivery to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS as well as access to youths and adolescents sexual and reproductive health services. According to the project objectives, improved training for midwives and nurses will significantly curb the transmission of HIV from mother to child, thus averting maternal and neonatal deaths.

Dr. Sennen Hounton’s visit served as an opportunity to appreciate the long-lasting trust established between UNFPA and the Government of Cameroon in the field of Reproductive health with a focus on Maternal health, family planning, the elimination of Obstetric Fistula and reducing STIs including HIV/AIDS. As it is, the PETVISIDAME Project stands as the second Islamic Development Bank-funded project geared at alleviating maternal and neonatal deaths in Cameroon with UNFPA managing $3 million from  2023 -2025. Thanks to the quality of UNFPA-Cameroon cooperation, the government had earlier entrusted UNFPA with the execution of the PASMNI Project from 2018 to 2022 with a financial allocation of $18 million. 

For over five decades now, the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health agency has supported the government in improving  services, elaboration of policies and capacity building of staff in the domain of Reproductive Health with prompt adaptation and reactivity. As a  case in point, the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak resulted in a need for the country to rapidly adapt Reproductive Health service delivery to reach the furthest behind in the most vulnerable parts of the country. This resulted in the deployment of the Mobile Clinic Strategy, an adapted van offering basic SRH services, which meets users with Family Planning, maternal health and STI screening, counselling and care. This method has since then been adopted to provide service in a  rapid disaster setting such as flooding presently affecting the Far North Region. In the last two years , the mobile clinic has reached about 60,000 users with Family Planning services. Besides the mobile clinic, UNFPA has also deployed 45 “humanitarian” midwives to support pregnant women facing the challenge of accessing health facilities due to displacement, crisis and natural disaster.

Another key achievement of the UNFPA-Government of Cameroon cooperation is the recent concretization of the government’s commitment to allocate a budget line to Family Planning as well as operationalise the Compact of Commitment in the context of UNFPA Supplies with the first contribution of 175,109,100 francs CFA.  

To this end, the meeting between Dr. Sennen Hounton and Dr. Manaouda Malachie remained an opportunity to underline UNFPA’s continuous support and availability to improve reproductive health service and respond to public health emergencies in a bid to reach the 3 zeros by 2030.