During the Every Woman Every Child meeting on 20 September 2011, attended by Heads of State, CEOs of the private sector and NGOs, and other UN and government officials, the Secretary-General announced progress in the effort to save women’s and children’s lives, and highlighted new commitments made during the past year.
More than 100 new partners, including governments, civil society and multilateral organisations, joined Every Woman Every Child in just the last year, bringing the total to more than 200 since the effort was launched. Private sector partners include Merck, which will launch a ten-year effort to prevent, treat, and diagnose the top three causes of death in pregnant women; Sesame Workshop, which will produce multimedia early child initiatives aimed at promoting general health, HIV/AIDS education and early prevention of malaria; and Safaricom, which will focus on creating a Kenya-based mobile health partnership in collaboration with World Vision.
A one-year progress update launched today, “Saving the Lives of 16 Million”, shows that in the first year of the effort, commitments have been implemented and enhanced, new partners have come on board, funding has been increased, policies improved and services strengthened on the ground. In launching the progress update, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said:
“Companies are often treated with suspicion when they enter the realm of global development, but they are playing a central role in improving the lives of women and children. Every Woman Every Child has shown what can be achieved through close co-operation between the UN, governments, and the private sector. A great deal has been achieved in the last year, but progress must be accelerated if we are to achieve our goals of saving 16 million lives by 2015. I am delighted that despite difficult economic times, many governments, companies and civil society leaders are making significant commitments to advance women’s and children’s health. These are smart decisions - visionary leaders recognize the value of investing in the health of women and children.”
Notably, 44 of the world’s poorest countries — among them Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Burundi, and Nepal — have now joined the Every Woman, Every Child effort, which takes forward the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2010. This brings the total number of partners in this joint effort to more than 200.
These nations have committed almost $11 billion of their own limited resources to the global effort to reduce the annual death toll and improve the health of this group, according to a report released today, Analysing Commitments to Advance the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, from The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH).
Women and Children First (UK) has committed to working with partners in Africa and Asia to mobilise communities to reduce maternal and newborn mortality rates through cost-effective and scalable community based interventions. WCF has also committed to keeping up the pressure on donor and national governments to achieve optimal reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health outcomes and to increase political commitment and action to support progress towards MDGs 4 and 5 in low and middle-income countries.
According to the most recent data, 39 of the world’s poorest 49 nations, most in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, were not on track to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 on reducing child mortality and 47 were off-track to meet MDG 5 to improve maternal health. According to the most recent UN estimates, approximately 358,000 women die due to complications related to pregnancy or childbirth each year, and 7.6 million newborns and children under the age of five die each year.
The UN Secretary-General’s report, “Saving the Lives of 16 million”, can be accessed here.
The PMNCH analysis of commitments can be accessed from here.
