Designing the Best Maternal and Newborn Healthcare System for Africa:
Africa faces unique challenges in delivering maternal and newborn healthcare, including limited infrastructure, financial constraints, and high disease burdens.
However, by learning from global best practices and tailoring these insights to African contexts, we can design a system that is both high-quality and cost-efficient.
Lessons from countries such as Sri Lanka, Cuba, and China, alongside innovations from the first world, provide a wealth of strategies to consider.
Sri Lanka has achieved remarkable success in reducing maternal and newborn mortality rates through a community-based healthcare model. Key strategies include:
African healthcare systems can replicate these strategies by decentralizing services, training midwives, and prioritizing equitable access to care for rural populations.
Cuba’s healthcare model emphasizes prevention and integration, achieving high outcomes despite limited resources:
Africa can adopt Cuba’s model by emphasizing preventive care, integrating maternal health with other public health efforts, and strengthening community health systems.
China has achieved significant reductions in maternal mortality by expanding access to care and investing in large-scale public health programs:
By focusing on UHC, workforce training, and leveraging data for decision-making, African nations can strengthen their maternal health systems.
The Karolinska Institute in Sweden has shifted toward patient-centered care pathways that optimize efficiency and outcomes. This approach includes:
Implementing patient-centered pathways in Africa could improve the quality of care and enhance patient satisfaction while maximizing resource utilization.
The Mayo Clinic’s advanced IT infrastructure supports efficient care delivery and enhances decision-making:
African healthcare systems can benefit from investing in affordable IT solutions, such as mobile health platforms, to bridge gaps in data management and care coordination.
Israel’s combination of technological innovation and strong primary care networks offers valuable lessons:
Africa can emulate Israel’s approach by adopting telemedicine and reinforcing primary care to reach underserved populations.
Value-based care models, which focus on outcomes rather than service volume, have gained traction in many high-income countries. Benefits include:
By adopting value-based care principles, African healthcare systems can ensure that investments deliver maximum impact for mothers and newborns.
Singapore’s focus on digital health offers a roadmap for leveraging technology to improve maternal and newborn care:
Africa can replicate Singapore’s success by investing in scalable digital health solutions that enhance both patient engagement and system efficiency.
Evidence suggests that empowering families and giving them choice, as well as access to reliable, digestible outcome and cost data, significantly improves healthcare outcomes. Key strategies include:
Integrating these approaches into Africa’s maternal and newborn healthcare systems can foster greater trust, improve patient satisfaction, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for mothers and newborns.
Designing a maternal and newborn healthcare system for Africa requires a multi-faceted approach that draws on global best practices.
By adopting community-based care models like those in Sri Lanka, focusing on prevention and integration as seen in Cuba, and scaling up universal coverage like China, Africa can address the fundamental challenges of accessibility and equity.
Simultaneously, incorporating innovations from high-income countries—such as patient-centered pathways, IT investments, value-based care, and family empowerment—can ensure the system is efficient, sustainable, and future-ready.
Ultimately, the key to success lies in adapting these lessons to local contexts, leveraging Africa’s unique strengths, and committing to a vision of healthcare that prioritizes the well-being of every mother and newborn.