Co-authored by Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates, the report shows that since 2016, progress in reducing global maternal mortality has stalled.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has said making new innovations accessible to those who need them most could save two million additional mothers and babies by 2030, and 6.4 million lives by 2040., released on Tuesday with focus on maternal and infant health.
The report, however, called for immediate action to help put the world back on track to achieve the global goal of cutting the maternal mortality rate to less than 70 out of 100,000 births and newborn mortality to 12 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2030. “As is so often the case in global health, innovations aren’t making their way to the people who need them most—women in low-income countries, as well as Black and Indigenous women in high-income countries like the United States, who are dying at three times the rate of white women and that needs to change,” she said.
In his essay, Bill Gates said over the past decade, the field of child health has advanced faster and farther than he thought he would see in his lifetime.