Dakar (Senegal) The African Union (AU) has launched an annual prize for excellence in maternal, newborn and child health called “Mama Afrika Award” named after late renowned South African singer and anti-apartheid icon Miriam Makeba.

Launched on the sidelines of the 1^st International Conference on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Africa on 1-3 August 2013 in Johannesburg South Africa, the award is meant to “honour remarkable efforts by individuals or organisations on the continent that ensure Africa’s mothers, new-borns and children survive and thrive” to realise their full productive potential.

On that 1^st August special evening about the “Mama Afrika Awards on Maternal, New-borns and Child Survival in Africa”, African Union Commission’s chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, hailed the achievements in improving maternal, newborn and child health, noting however that challenges still exist.

The new award will focus on 6 categories namely Innovation in Finance, Access to Services, Community Mobilisation and Participation, Vulnerable Groups and Disadvantaged Population, Conflict and Unstable Situations and Capacity Building.

The award will hail real-life heroes and heroines, including organisations, from around the continent. The nominations are open until 1 February 2014 by filling in the form this form .

The AU will hold the award ceremony in August/September 2014 during which the prizes (a medal and a document) will be presented.

The award is named after Miriam Makeba, who died on 9^th November 2008 at age 76, not only because of her anti-apartheid struggle, her Pan-Africanist nature holding the citizenship of 10 African countries but also because she lost her only daughter, Bongi Makeba, to pregnancy related complications. 

It could be recalled that the first International Conference on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Africa was held within the framework of the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), an AU initiative, supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

CARMMA is meant to reduce maternal mortality in most African countries by 75% (in comparison with 1990's figures) by 2015, as recommended in Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG5).