The Annual Report 2014 of the Maternal Health Thematic Fund analyses the first year of operation of Phase II of the Maternal Health Thematic Fund. The Maternal Health Thematic Fund is UNFPA’s flagship programme for accelerating improved maternal and newborn health. It is the only one of its kind in the UN system that focuses on a key area of reproductive health while at the same time intensively contributing to strengthening health systems.

This report shows how the Maternal Health Thematic Fund enables a targeted response to maternal mortality and morbidity across several dimensions, using sound evidence and state-of-the-art knowledge while helping to build the capacity of countries to create functioning health systems.

Following six years of implementation (2008-2013), the Maternal Health Thematic Fund entered its second phase in 2014 with a new business plan and a strengthened results indicators framework. The areas of midwifery, emergency obstetric and newborn care, obstetric fistula and maternal death surveillance and remain essential features of the Maternal Health Thematic Fund's focus. And in 2014, the Maternal Health Thematic Fund added a new focus area: addressing first-time young mothers, a particularly vulnerable group in the context of maternal health. The annual report describes the 2014 results in each of these areas.

Furthermore, the report shows how Maternal Health Thematic Fund activities and results have not only contributed to accelerating efforts to realize Millennium Development Goal 5 but have also demonstrated that targeting high-burden countries with strategic and complementary evidence-based, high-impact interventions, backed with sufficient and sustainable financing, can make substantive inroads in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity, building capacity, and strengthening health systems. Together, this makes the Maternal Health Thematic Fund well positioned to contribute to the global movement for the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals.