MAMII Private Sector Compact: Government-Private Sector Partnership to Address Maternal Mortality in Nigeria

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On the second day of the 2026 Joint Annual Review (JAR) of the health sector in Abuja, the MAMII private sector compact was launched. The government-led compact, supported by the World Economic Forum, Gates Foundation, MTN Foundation and MSD for Mothers, aligns private sector, non-governmental and philanthropic resources, technical expertise and delivery capabilities with national maternal and newborn health priorities.

At the launch by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, private sector and philanthropic partners lined up to support Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII). Their proposed contributions, in cash and in kind, are estimated at over US$65 million.

“$65 million is not a small fee,” said the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate. “You don’t get that every day, especially from the private sector at a very tough time.”

Nigeria loses an estimated 75,000 women to pregnancy and childbirth every year, more than 200 each day. Most of these deaths are preventable, yet proven interventions do not consistently reach women who need them the most.

Closing this gap requires more than identifying lifesaving solutions; it requires sustained investment, strong partnerships, and a commitment to translate these interventions from policy commitments into everyday clinical practice.

“We know the interventions that save lives,” Uche Amaonwu, Nigeria Country Director at the Gates Foundation, told the session. “The challenge is getting those interventions to the women and the newborn who need them consistently, at the scale and with the quality they deserve.”

This is where long-term private sector investment becomes critical. Beyond providing funding, private sector partners can support research, generate evidence, strengthen healthcare delivery capacity, and work with governments to integrate proven interventions into national and state health systems.

Since 2015, MSD for Mothers, the maternal health initiative of MSD, has supported efforts to address maternal mortality in Nigeria, with a focus on postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy-related complications.

Speaking at JAR, Iyadunni Olubode, Nigeria and Kenya Lead at MSD for Mothers, highlighted the initiative’s contribution to the World Health Organization’s recommendation on PPH prevention, its integration into country-level policies and the “foundations and evolution” of TEAM OB/NEO [Training for Emergency Action, Management and Workflows in Midwifery, Obstetrics (TEAM OB) and Neonatal Care (TEAM NEO)].

“We know that sustainable progress is achieved when local leadership, evidence and collective action come together to drive change at scale. The MAMII Private Sector Compact represents an important opportunity to align resources, expertise and urgency behind a shared goal- helping to ensure that every woman in Nigeria has access to quality maternal health care when and where she needs it,” she said.

At the launch of the compact, the Minister unveiled the training curriculum and implementation framework for Training for Emergency Action, Management and Workflows in Midwifery, Obstetrics and Neonatal Care (TEAM OB/NEO).

This is a government-led approach that trains frontline health workers to recognise and manage childbirth emergencies, including PPH, through a single integrated programme. Together, private sector investment and the framework mark a shift from projects that prove what works to a system built to deliver it.

MAMII, launched at the 2024 JAR, concentrates on 172 local government areas (LGAs) in 33 states that account for more than half of Nigeria’s maternal deaths. The MAMII Private Sector Compact adds a government-led way for businesses and philanthropies to plug in.

The Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) Coordination Office identifies the gaps, matches each partner’s capabilities to them, and maps who is working where. Dr Dayo Adeyanju, MAMII National Lead at the SWAp Coordination Office, described a year of groundwork behind it, including more than 30 meetings of the private sector technical working group.

The Compact platform, he said, “shows clearly where the gaps are and which delivery partners are supporting which LGAs”, so that no two partners duplicate each other. He was also clear that government is not handing over its duty: “We cannot do it all.”  State governments told the session that MAMII is working. In Abia, three of the priority LGAs accounted for over 30% of the state’s maternal deaths. The Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Uche, said “52 high-risk pregnancies have since been identified and managed there, and we did not lose any one of them.” He called MAMII the one programme that “has changed the narrative” on mothers’ deaths in real time.

Kwara’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Ahmed El-Imam, said the programme “is saving the lives of the people who need it the most, the least privileged among us”. She added: “I don’t believe there’s an intervention that will change as many lives as MAMII.”

TEAM OB/NEO applies the same logic to the labour ward. It brings E-MOTIVE for PPH together with pre-eclampsia risk assessment, the Safer Births Bundle of Care, Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training (PROMPT) and Essential Newborn Care in one government-led curriculum. A midwife no longer has to be trained on bleeding by one project and on eclampsia by another.

“TEAM OB/NEO is a key implementation initiative within the MAMII Compact, giving partners a clear route to strengthen the skills of frontline health workers at scale,” said Dr Samuel Oyeniyi, Director of Reproductive Health at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Its backers include the Gates Foundation and MSD for Mothers, with delivery partners such as the Africa Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP), SCIDaR, CHAI and Technical Advice Connect (TA Connect).

Professor Pate explained why the tools were launched alongside the money: “The tools and the people will deliver quality services to our women and will save lives.”

Three things will decide whether this moment outlives the current funding cycle.

Domestic funding: Investment cases now exist for Kano, Kebbi, Lagos and Rivers State. In Kano, the planning estimate is that ₦143 billion over four years could save 5,586 lives, while inaction would cost ₦268 billion. Dr Adeyanju said such figures speak to finance and budget ministries in their own terms: “What they know is GDP; they don’t know about mortality. If we now begin to communicate in their language, definitely we will get more domestic resource mobilisation.” State governments should use these cases to fund PPH commodities and training from their own budgets.

Honest accountability: Comprehensive emergency obstetric care readiness in MAMII LGAs has risen from 15% to 35%, yet most facilities still cannot handle the most severe complications. Kwara’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Ahmed El-Imam, said her state’s recorded deaths are rising because it now reports everyone. “Nobody wants their report card to show a worsening number,” she said. Partners and government should reward that honesty and track every commitment through the Compact platform.

An open door: The Compact and TEAM OB/NEO give other organisations with proven maternal health innovations a route into government-led delivery. They should take it.

Dr El-Imam offered the test for all of this: institutions strong enough “to exist and perform well long after we are gone”. By JAR 2027, success will mean that a woman who bleeds after childbirth in any of the 172 LGAs is met by a trained health worker, quality medicine, and a referral system that works.

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