Timor-Leste has one of the highes maternal mortality rates in Southeast Asia (195 per 100,000 live births) and only 57% of births are attended by qualified health professionals. The lack of an effective and accessible emergency obstetric and newborn care network and of qualified health professionals may help explain these numbers.

UNFPA Timor-Leste in collaboration with the Ministry of Health is dedicated to building capacity of midwifery schools in Timor-Leste to provide high-quality pre-service midwifery education including training on the Minimum Initial Services Package (MISP) to mitigate effects of disasters like COVID-19 and to improve midwives’ working conditions through provision of state of the art facilities to midwifery schools.

Midwives are fundamental in ending preventable deaths during and after childbirth and achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.1 – reducing global deaths due to complications from pregnacy and childbirths ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

UNFPA strengthens the Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) network by equipping health centers to provide EmONC services.