Policy advocacy for health is one of the most effective ways to achieve public health goals by ensuring that the necessary resources, policies and political will are available to support and sustain health programs as well as bringing about policy change for health. 

Since the introduction of free maternity services through the presidential directive the numbers of women seeking skilled services has gone up within the public health hospitals  and this has  greatly impacted on  public health in general. However, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed if full implementation  of the free maternal healthcare is to be realized.