30 January 2013
Global Campaign for Health MDGs Launches 2013 Report
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The Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched a report, titled “Accelerating Progress: Saving Women's and Children's Lives in the Coming Decade,”which describes new commitments and developments on women's and children's health since UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health.

22 January 2013: The Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched a report, titled “Accelerating Progress: Saving Women’s and Children’s Lives in the Coming Decade,” which describes new commitments and developments on women’s and children’s health since UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

The report was launched at a conference with the same title as the report, in Oslo, Norway, on 22 January 2013. In his contribution to the report, Ban notes the world has made progress for women and children worldwide, while emphasizing “there is still a tremendous amount of work to do to meet our goal of saving 16 million lives by the year 2015.” In a joint message, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s President, and Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s Prime Minister, say the world is “off track to reach our goals” on child and maternal health by 2015. Highlighting positive progress, however, they note the implementation of recommendations by the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.

The report highlights the potential of several campaigns, including: India’s Rural Health Mission, which aims to end deaths from child diarrhea; Malawi’s Presidential Initiative on Safe Motherhood, which aims to increase availability and utilization of maternal and newborn heath services; and Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives campaign, which aims to scale up women’s and children’s access to primary health services and commodities. These campaigns all set clear national priorities and have high-level political backing.

The report features chapters on, inter alia: preventable deaths; family planning; affordable contraception for women and girls; innovation; advocating for life-saving commodities; and accountability, information and results. It also includes country reports on Indonesia, Malawi and Nigeria and chapters on regional and inter-parliamentary commitments.

In addition to the UN Secretary-General, the report includes contributions from Heads of States and Governments, UN Agency, Fund and Foundation Leaders, regional and parliamentary organizations, the private sector and civil society organizations. It also includes a thematic chapter on progress on MDG 4 (child health) and 5 (maternal health).

The “Accelerating Progress” conference in Oslo included three thematic sessions and a high-level roundtable discussion. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010-2020 session discussed using this study as an input to post-2015 goal setting. The Post-2015 Agenda for Global Health session discussed health as an investment for economic and sustainable development. The Commodities Supply and Distribution session discussed how “to get more health for the money” within the context of the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children’s recommendations.

The Government of Norway launched the Global Campaign in 2007 with the aim of fulfilling the promises made by world leaders in the 2000 Millennium Declaration. The Campaign has published annual reports on progress on women’s and children’s health since its initiation. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the 2013 report. [Publication: Accelerating Progress: Saving Women’s and Children’s Lives in the Coming Decade] [UNFPA Press Release] [Conference Programme] [Global Campaign] [Every Woman, Every Child Campaign]

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