The world is currently facing an acute shortage of 900,000 midwives, which represents a third of the required global midwifery workforce. The COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated these problems, with the health needs of women and newborns being overshadowed, midwifery services being disrupted and midwives being deployed to other health services.

To mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem honours the memory of those forced from their homelands and calls for the end of slavery's legacy of racism and discrimination that continues to oppress people of African descent today.