The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health Progress Report is launched

On 10th March 2015, the high level event Saving Lives, Protecting Futures was hosted by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, to launch a Progress Report on the Global Strategy for Women’s and Child’s Health. The Progress Report documents progress, lessons learned, and the added value of partnerships facilitated under the Global Strategy. The Progress Report also sets-up the rationale for an updated Global Strategy for the 2016-2030 period.

The next Global Strategy will be launched at the UN General Assembly in September 2015 with a draft five-year implementation plan and will be proposed for formal endorsement at the World Health Assembly in May 2016.

The Secretary-General, throughout his opening remarks, spoke of his personal commitment to Every Woman Every Child, stating “you have heard me in the past [speak] about my own experiences as a child, losing one of my brothers and sisters…that is why the health of women and children is a personal cause to me.” He went on to highlight that since 2010 alone, the world has saved the lives of some 2.4 million women and children thanks to the interventions outlined in the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.  

The Global Strategy for Women’s and Child’s Health was developed with the support and facilitation of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), an alliance of over 500 members including academia, research, donors, health-care professionals and the private sector. Since then, a number of important efforts have grown to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and to mobilise and intensify global action for Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5  including Every Women Every Child (EWEC).

EWEC is a movement that puts into action the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which calls on all partners to unite and take coordinated action. EWEC aims to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world. Supporting efforts for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health is critical for scaling up nutrition, particularly specific interventions and nutrition sensitive approaches that improve the health of women and children.

Learn more about the launch

Other efforts to improve RMNCH include;

• Every Newborn: an action plan to end preventable deaths (ENAP) Launched in June 2014, the ENAP is supported by a World Health Assembly Resolution and aims to support government leadership, the actions of policymakers and program managers. The ENAP provides technical guidance to inform the sharpening of newborn strategies and plans in the context of existing health sector plans and RMNCH strategies.
• Thousand Days is a movement helping to build awareness about the critical 1,000 day window of opportunity from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second year. The right nutrition during this 1,000 day window can have an enormous impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn, and rise out of povertyhttp://www.thousanddays.org/
• A Promise Renewed (APR) is the banner under which some governments and partners are uniting to reduce under-five mortality rates. Facilitated by UNICEF, ARP supports concerted actions on three fronts; strengthening evidence-based country action plans, monitoring and reporting and promoting global communication and social mobilization for child survival.