World Health Day 2025
Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures
On 7 April 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) will celebrate World Health Day. The theme of this year’s campaign is “maternal health” and it focuses on improving survival for women and their newborns, with the aim of ending preventable maternal mortality and better understanding and responding to the health needs of mothers and newborns beyond surviving childbirth, especially during emergencies.
This year’s tagline is: “Healthy beginning, hopeful futures”.
Key focus areas
Ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths (highlighting accountability for healthcare coverage and respectful care).
Supporting mums and opening up about maternal health (broadening the conversation beyond survival to look at the continuum of care – including frank conversations on postpartum and mental health).
Empowering women and girls as the foundation for maternal and newborn health and survival (through choice, access, autonomy and rights).
Maternal and newborn Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region is home to more than 800 million people. This includes more than 400 million women and girls.
In the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), live more than 120 million women of reproductive age, who give birth to around 20 million newborns each year.
Newborn deaths account for nearly 60% of deaths among children under the age of 5 in the EMR, resulting in around half a million lives lost each year. Additionally, almost 400,000 babies are stillborn. All babies need essential care at birth and in their first month of life, including breastfeeding support, so they are protected from injury and infection, can breathe normally, and have the vital warmth and nutrition they need to survive and thrive.
Heroes of maternal health
As we mark the World Health Day 2025, it is essential to recognize the tireless efforts of health workers in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) and particularly nurses and midwives who make up more than half of the total health workforce and majority of whom are women. Their commitment to serving their communities is unwavering and their contributions are indispensable.
In the midst of conflict, displacement, and uncertainty, there are unsung heroes working tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of pregnant women and newborns. Meet the midwives and nurses from Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Afghanistan, who against all odds, provide critical care and support to families in need.
Key messages
We can end preventable maternal and newborn deaths. WHO is calling for a worldwide reinvigoration of efforts to ensure access to high quality care for women and babies, especially in the poorest countries and emergency settings where most maternal and newborn deaths occur.
Beyond survival, critical investment is needed to improve women’s longer-term health and well-being. Women everywhere need access to health providers who listen to their concerns and meet their needs – including in the months after birth when millions still lack critical support.
Better maternal health means improving access to sexual and reproductive health services so that women can plan their lives and protect their health. Agency and empowerment for women and girls is fundamental for tackling both maternal and newborn deaths and achieving health for all.
Ensuring that maternity care is available for all requires building resilient health systems through investment in the health workforce, securing the necessary health commodities and establishing effective care and referral pathways.
Whether on our own or as part of a community, we can all play a part in protecting the health of women and girls everywhere, leaving no one behind.
Campaign materials
Maternal health care in emergency settings
Access to maternal health care is a basic human right that enables women and girls to contribute towards recovery from humanitarian crises. Maternal health services should be viewed as being essential during a crisis, rather than as being of secondary importance to other health services such as care for severe physical injuries.
Humanitarian crises, and the associated population displacement, are a large and growing problem across the globe. According to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, a significant portion of internally displaced people and asylum seekers worldwide reside in or come from WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, and the countries of the Region host more than one third of the world’s forcibly displaced people.
One of the impacts of humanitarian crises is a disruption in the availability of health services, especially maternity services which are not seen as a priority when responding to emergencies. This results in increased rates of maternal mortality and morbidity and is a major barrier to recovery from the crisis.
