WHO Urges Africa to Strengthen Patient Safety for Mothers, Newborns

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on African countries to step up efforts to protect children and newborns from preventable harm in health care, as the region joined the rest of the world to mark World Patient Safety Day 2025 on Tuesday, September 17.

This year’s theme, “Safe care for every newborn and every child”, with the slogan “Patient safety from the start!”, highlights the urgent need to address risks faced by the youngest and most vulnerable patients, particularly in intensive care units.

Dr Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa, warned that unsafe care continues to claim lives across the continent. “Poor quality care – rather than lack of access – accounts for an estimated 60% of maternal deaths and 56% of neonatal deaths in low- and middle-income countries,” he said. “These are lives we can and must save.”

WHO noted that significant progress has been made, with 21 African countries already implementing National Quality Policies and Strategies that embed patient safety measures such as infection prevention and control. Member States have also endorsed WHO standards aimed at improving care for mothers, newborns, children and sick infants.

Despite these gains, Dr Janabi stressed that more needs to be done to ensure that “every patient, everywhere, receives safe care at every point of contact.” He pointed to the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030, which calls for safer clinical processes, stronger workforce training, and greater involvement of patients and families in health care.

To accelerate progress, WHO urged African governments to:

• Raise national awareness of safety risks in paediatric and newborn care.

• Mobilise health managers, professional bodies and civil society to adopt sustainable strategies for safer care.

• Empower parents, caregivers and children through education and participation.

• Invest in research and innovation to strengthen evidence for safer care.

“The vision is a world in which no patient is harmed in health care, and everyone receives safe care, every time, everywhere,” Dr Janabi said. “By strengthening systems, empowering families and placing safety at the heart of care, we can create healthier beginnings and more hopeful futures for all children in Africa.”

World Patient Safety Day, first observed in 2019, is marked annually on September 17 to raise awareness of the importance of safe, high-quality, people-centred health care as a foundation of universal health coverage and a key step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.