Bangladesh pledges 25,000 midwives to close its maternal health gap by 2030

What is the background?

Bangladesh has spent four decades cutting maternal deaths, lowering its maternal mortality ratio from 574 per 100,000 live births in the mid-1980s to 136 today. Even so, around 4,000 women still die each year from largely preventable causes linked to pregnancy and childbirth, and roughly 30% of births still happen at home without a skilled attendant present.

What happened?

On 14 June 2026, Bangladesh pledged to train and deploy 25,000 midwives by 2030. Dr S M Ziauddin Hyder, Special Assistant on Health Affairs to the Prime Minister, announced the commitment at the 34th Triennial Congress of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) in Lisbon, alongside UNFPA Executive Director Diene Keita. Only 2,557 midwives currently serve across the country’s 6,215 public health facilities, so the pledge would expand the workforce roughly tenfold. Keita called Bangladesh a “trailblazer” in building a professional midwifery cadre and said “Bangladesh is showing the world that investing in midwives is investing in survival.”

How did it happen?

Deployment will roll out in phases over four years, prioritising primary healthcare facilities where skilled birth attendance is scarcest. The wider plan calls for stationing two midwives in every rural union and urban ward nationwide, and folding the country’s 14,000 existing community clinics into new “Health Hubs” built around maternal and newborn care. UNFPA has backed Bangladesh’s midwifery programme since it began in 2010, helping establish training curricula and a regulatory framework; the country now has 62 public and 110 private midwifery institutes graduating more than 5,000 students a year. Hyder said Bangladesh is “taking what it has built to the scale its women and newborns deserve.”

Why does it matter?

Midwives can deliver up to 90% of essential sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and adolescent health services and can prevent up to two-thirds of maternal and newborn deaths, figures cited at the congress show. Closing the gap between 2,557 and 25,000 midwives would put trained birth attendance within reach of communities that currently rely on home births. Keita said the commitment “sends a powerful message: maternal mortality is not inevitable” — aimed at a health workforce shortfall of roughly one million midwives worldwide.

What were the key results?

• 25,000 midwives to be trained and deployed nationwide by 2030
• Current midwifery workforce: 2,557 midwives across 6,215 public health facilities
• Maternal mortality ratio cut from 574 to 136 per 100,000 live births since the mid-1980s
• Sustainable Development Goal target: below 70 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births
• Deployment phased over four years, prioritising primary healthcare facilities first
• 62 public and 110 private midwifery institutes now graduate 5,000+ students a year

What happens next?

Bangladesh’s health authorities plan to station two midwives in every rural union and urban ward as the rollout continues through 2030. The government is also converting 14,000 community clinics into “Health Hubs” centred on maternal and newborn services, with a pilot already under way in five districts. UNFPA said it will keep supporting training and regulatory standards as Bangladesh scales its midwifery cadre toward the SDG target of 70 deaths per 100,000 live births.