His main task is to support technically the efforts conducted by the regional offices and all country offices in the field of maternal and newborn health, including family planning, the elimination of the mother to child transmission of the VIH and obstetric fistula, with the support of the Maternal Health Thematic Fund. The focus is on strengthening health systems, strategic planning, human resources development and management, services delivery and monitoring and evaluation. Working within the H4+ (UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, The World Bank, UNAIDS and UNWomen - Joint Programme for Maternal and Newborn Health) he contributes to strengthening partnerships at global, regional and country levels. Luc is currently supporting the H4+ High Burden Country Initiative (HBCI), aimed to assist countries in assessing comprehensively their human resources for MNH and to plan accordingly, and has coordinated the development of the State of the World’s Midwifery report 2014, with WHO and ICM. Luc is coordinating the UNFPA Mano River Midwifery response aimed to strengthen RMNH services in the Ebola-affected countries, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Luc de Bernis is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist with training on Epidemiology and Public Health. He spent more than 10 years in Francophone West Africa, as technical assistant and adviser for the French Ministry of Cooperation and ministers of health (Chad, Senegal). He was one of the coordinators of the first African multi-centric survey on maternal mortality and morbidity (MOMA).  Luc joint the World Health Organisation in 2000, working as a technical officer in the Reproductive Health and Research Department where he coordinated the maternal and newborn health team (Making Pregnancy Safer Initiative). Before being at UNFPA HQ, Luc de Bernis worked for the African Regional RMNH Programme of UNFPA, based in Addis-Ababa