The Alliance to Improve Midwifery Education (AIME) is delighted to launch a new website, dedicated to bringing together all aspects of midwifery education. The platform, developed by AIME, unites the expertise of leading partners including the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), UNFPA, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), Laerdal Global Health, the Burnet Institute, UNICEF and Jhpiego. Together, these organisations are working to enhance the quality of midwifery education worldwide, building the capacity of midwives and strengthening the health systems in which they operate.

Founded in 2021, AIME was born from an urgent need to advance midwifery education to enable midwives to reach their full potential and drive much-needed improvements in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH). The world lacks 1 million midwives and midwifery education across the world is often widely disparate and misaligned with global standards. These critical challenges in midwifery education led to inequitable services and a failure to realise the transformative impact educated and competent midwives can provide.

Studies show that midwives who are educated to global standards and supported in enabling environments could prevent more than 60% of maternal and newborn deaths. Despite these significant benefits, many midwives, especially in low- and middle-income countries, still lack access to quality training, mentorship, clinical placements and appropriate learning resources. Additionally, midwife faculty often deliver pre-registration educational programmes with inadequate facilities, high student-to-faculty ratios and insufficient professional development opportunities that they need to deliver high quality competency-based midwifery education in line with the ICM Essential Competencies for Midwifery Practice and the  ICM Global Standards for Midwifery Education.

Over the past four years, AIME has established itself as a leading consortium, strengthening global partnerships to enhance midwifery education worldwide. AIME’s activities have reached more than 8,500 healthcare providers and educators in over 100 countries. AIME has convened regional workshops in Thailand, Rwanda and Germany, delivered free online webinars and published a number of academic papers. Through these activities, AIME has created space for global knowledge-sharing, collaboration and the promotion of global standards to advance and align midwifery education.  

The AIME website is designed to consolidate global midwifery education initiatives. It will provide partners, funders, and midwifery educators with accessible high-quality, relevant resources, all in one place. The site will host priority resources from the AIME partners, offer recordings of global webinars, provide updates on new research and policy developments and share relevant events and ways to stay connected.