Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has charged the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response (PRIMER) to ensure that pregnant women and their babies return home safely after receiving care.

She said the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response (PRIMER) must not operate as a stand-alone programme but should strengthen existing systems and close gaps that continue to put pregnant women and newborns at risk.

Speaking at the launch of the Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health Emergency Response, the Vice President said the ultimate measure of PRIMER's success should not simply be the number of women who reach health facilities, but whether those women and their babies survive and return home safely.

“It is not enough for many more women to enter our health facilities. They must return home safely with their babies to their families," she said.

“This is the standard by which PRIMER must be measured,” she added.

The Vice President outlined the key areas that should guide the implementation of the initiative.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said she was encouraged by the three main pillars around which PRIMA had been organised.

“I am pleased to learn about the three pillars around which PRIMER is organised,” she said.

According to the Vice President, the first pillar focuses on political leadership and social mobilisation, with the aim of bringing together institutions and communities to improve maternal healthcare.

“The first is political leadership and social mobilisation,” she said.

She explained that PRIMA would seek to improve coordination among government ministries, public institutions and local authorities, as well as traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations, the private sector and communities.

The Vice President said bringing these groups together would be critical because maternal health is not an issue that can be addressed by the health sector alone.

She identified institutional accountability and evidence-based action as the second pillar of the initiative.

“The second is institutional accountability and evidence-based action,” she said.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said PRIMER would strengthen maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response systems while improving the quality and timeliness of data.

She also said the initiative would help clarify institutional responsibilities and support regular high-level reviews of results.

According to her, the data collected must be used to identify what is working, where the gaps are, and what needs to be changed.

She called for lessons from high-performing regions and health facilities to be identified and applied in other parts of the country.

“Progress must be reviewed regularly, and the lessons from high-performing regions and facilities identified and applied elsewhere,” she said.

The Vice President also said the importance of financing in ensuring the initiative can be sustained.

She said PRIMER would support sustainable domestic financing while also mobilising responsible external support.

Its areas of focus include maternity and newborn care, referral and transport systems, access to blood, medicines and essential medical equipment, community engagement and the effective use of data.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the implementation framework must clearly define PRIMA's targets, responsibilities and reporting arrangements to ensure that stakeholders can be held accountable.

“Its implementation framework must make clear its target, responsibilities, and reporting arrangements,” she said.

The Vice President cautioned against treating PRIMA as a separate programme operating outside existing government structures.

“PRIMER cannot succeed as a stand-alone programme, nor duplicate the work already underway across government,” she said.

She said its success would depend on close cooperation between relevant ministries, government agencies, local authorities and development partners.

“Each stakeholder has a role to play,” she added.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said PRIMER should work within existing institutional mandates while helping to address gaps that have not yet been resolved.

She also pointed out that several factors affecting maternal survival are outside the direct control of the health sector.

“Indeed, some of the conditions that affect maternal survival lie beyond the health sector, such as roads, communication, transport, water, energy,” she said.

She therefore called for stronger collaboration with institutions responsible for those areas to ensure that existing programmes contribute more effectively to maternal health outcomes.

“PRIMER must therefore work with the responsible institutions to identify where existing programmes can contribute more effectively and where persistent gaps remain,” she said.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang also called on families and communities to play an active role in preventing maternal deaths.

She said families should encourage pregnant women to seek medical attention early, recognise danger signs and avoid delays in seeking care.

“Families and communities also have an essential role to play by encouraging women to seek care early, recognising danger signs, and ensuring that women are supported, rather than delayed,” she said.

She also called on traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations and the media to reinforce public education on maternal health and encourage women to seek care promptly.

PRIMER is a five-year national response built on five pillars: political commitment and mobilisation, institutional accountability, sustainable domestic financing, the Maternal Mortality Reduction Accelerated Action and Response Programme, and intersectoral coordination.

While access to antenatal care and skilled delivery is now near universal, maternal survival has not kept pace. PRIMER has been designed to close that gap.