Ethiopia’s efforts to prevent maternal and newborn deaths are receiving a US$90 million commitment from the Beginnings Fund through a five-year partnership with the Ministry of Health. Covering eight regions, 46 districts and 210 health facilities, the partnership aims to strengthen frontline care by investing in skilled health workers, essential medicines, equipment, infrastructure and referral systems. Working alongside government and other partners, the fund will support Ethiopia’s plans to prevent approximately 86,000 maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2031.
Leading the initiative is Alice Kang’ethe, founding Chief Executive Officer of the Beginnings Fund, a philanthropic organisation partnering with African governments to improve maternal and newborn survival. Kang’ethe brings two decades of experience at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where she most recently served as global Chief Operating Officer, overseeing programmes in more than 40 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Her previous leadership roles focused on maternal and child health, vaccine delivery, family planning and preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
In this interview with Capital, Kang’ethe discusses the priorities behind the investment, how the partnership will work through Ethiopia’s existing health systems, and the targets that will measure its contribution to safer pregnancies, childbirth and newborn care. She also explains how collaborative philanthropy can help close critical funding gaps and sustain progress. Excerpts;
Capital: What are the main goals of the five-year partnership between the Ministry of Health and the Beginnings Fund?
Alice Kang’ethe: At its heart, this five-year partnership is about supporting the Government of Ethiopia’s goal to ensure women and newborns in Ethiopia access quality care when and where they need it. In turn, this will accelerate progress towards ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths. The partnership will reach eight regions, 46 districts, and 210 health facilities across Ethiopia.
Working alongside the Federal Ministry of Health and Regional Health Bureaus, the Beginnings Fund will invest in the people, products, and systems needed to deliver quality maternal and newborn care. Through this partnership, the Beginnings Fund will support Ethiopia’s existing plans to prevent approximately 86,000 maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2031, while helping strengthen the health systems for quality maternal and newborn care and to sustain progress over the long term.
Capital: Why was Ethiopia selected as a priority country for the Beginnings Fund’s maternal and newborn health investment?
Alice Kang’ethe: Ethiopia has demonstrated a strong commitment to improving maternal and newborn health, with clear national plans and significant Government investment already behind these priorities. This creates an important foundation for the Beginnings Fund to work alongside the Government and complement the progress already underway.
At the same time, women and newborns still face barriers to accessing the quality care they need, and there are areas where additional investment can make a significant difference. Working with the Federal Ministry of Health, we looked closely at maternal and newborn health data, existing investments, and gaps in support to understand where Beginnings Fund resources could have the greatest impact. That analysis identified priority districts where maternal and newborn deaths remain concentrated and where there are gaps in service coverage, workforce, and other health-system requirements for quality maternal and newborn care. That combination of strong Government leadership and investment, clear national priorities, and an opportunity for targeted, catalytic philanthropic funding to address critical gaps and scale up high-impact, evidence-based, cost-effective interventions is exactly the kind of partnership the Beginnings Fund was established to support.
Capital: The Fund is committing USD 90 million in catalytic financing. What specific gaps in maternal and newborn care will this funding address?
Alice Kang’ethe: Ethiopia has made important progress in maternal and newborn health, but there are gaps that need to be addressed to ensure all women and newborns can access quality care when they need it. These include shortages and uneven distribution of skilled health workers, availability of essential medicines and equipment, and referral and data systems that do not always support timely, coordinated care, particularly in rural and pastoralist areas.
The USD 90 million investment has been designed around these gaps. It will support the scale-up of high-impact, evidence-based, cost-effective interventions that address the leading causes of maternal and newborn deaths; improve the availability of quality maternal and newborn health commodities and equipment; strengthen the number, skills, and distribution of the health workforce; and support improvements in maternal and newborn health infrastructure, data, and referral systems.
Capital; How will the partnership complement Ethiopia’s existing national maternal, newborn and child health strategies rather than create parallel systems?
Alice Kang’ethe: This partnership has been designed from the outset to align with Ethiopia’s national priorities and work through existing government systems. The Federal Ministry of Health will lead implementation, working with Regional Health Bureaus and national institutions, and the investment will build on Ethiopia’s existing health sector and maternal and newborn health strategies.
The same principle applies to financing. The Beginnings Fund’s USD 90 million investment complements existing and planned investment in maternal and newborn health, including up to USD 506 million in Government commitments and more than USD 220 million from other donors and partners. Our approach is to invest alongside governments and partners, directing catalytic philanthropic funding to where it can build on and strengthen existing efforts.
Capital: What measurable targets will be used to assess whether the partnership is reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths over the five-year period?
Alice Kang’ethe: We have clear measures of success built into the investment from the beginning. By 2031, the partnership aims to contribute to a 15% reduction in maternal mortality, a 15.7% reduction in stillbirths, and a 26% reduction in neonatal mortality in Ethiopia.
Behind these numbers, we also need to understand whether care is actually improving for women and newborns. We will also track the changes in care that will help us get there, including whether more women are accessing antenatal care earlier, whether proven maternal and newborn health interventions are reaching those who need them, and whether the quality of care is improving across the target facilities. We will work with the Federal Ministry of Health to strengthen and use existing national data systems to monitor progress, identify what is working, and adapt where needed.
Capital: What will the partnership mean in practice for the hospitals and health facilities it supports, particularly in strengthening the health workforce and ensuring health workers have the tools and systems they need to deliver quality care?
Alice Kang’ethe: For a health worker, having the right skills is only part of being able to provide quality care; they also need the right medicines, equipment, and systems around them. The investment will support the recruitment and deployment of 110 specialists, including obstetricians/gynaecologists and paediatricians, alongside specialised nurses, midwives, and anaesthetists. It will also support specialist training, mentorship, and professional development for the existing workforce.
For facilities, it means having more of what health workers need to provide that care: essential medicines and equipment, strengthened maternal and newborn units and operating theatres in selected facilities, and better data and referral systems. Bringing these elements – people, products, systems, and infrastructure – together is central to ensuring women and newborns can receive quality care when they need it, ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Capital: What is the role of collaborative philanthropy in the Beginnings Fund’s model, and how can this approach help improve maternal and newborn health across Africa?
Alice Kang’ethe: The Beginnings Fund was established on the belief that we can achieve more by working together than any one organisation can alone. By bringing philanthropic funders together, we can pool funding, expertise, and partnerships behind a shared ambition: helping more women and newborns access quality care. Our founding donors include the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Delta Philanthropies, The ELMA Foundation, and the Gates Foundation, alongside support from other philanthropic funders.
What makes this approach important is that it allows us to combine resources and expertise to support larger, longer-term investments, rather than individual funders working separately. It also helps us take proven, cost-effective maternal and newborn health interventions to greater scale, supporting more women and newborns across Africa. Ultimately, collaborative philanthropy is about making our collective investment go further and achieving more together than we could individually.
