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Women and children to benefit from new recommendations to improve health
accountability
Geneva, 3 May 2011 – New recommendations calling for an
unprecedented level of accountability to save the lives of more women and
children in developing countries were agreed today by the United Nations
Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health
which met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These new approaches will help ensure that
pledges are honoured and resources spent in the most effective way to save
lives.
The ten recommendations include specific approaches
to:
- Help countries develop better ways
of gathering important health data to
improve understanding of health needs
and where resources should be focused
- Develop a coordinated system for
tracking health spending on women and
children
- National and global oversight to
establish a feedback mechanism that
supports continuous improvement in
delivery of health services for women
and children
To better understand the current situation and
impact of efforts, the Commission advised monitoring
progress based on specific indicators, such as the
number of women who have access to skilled care during
childbirth and the number of children treated for
pneumonia.
“All partners are mutually accountable for the
promises they make and the health policies and
programmes they design and implement,” said Jakaya
Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania
and co-chair of the Commission with Stephen Harper,
Canadian Prime Minister. “Tracking resources and results
of public health spending is critical for transparency,
credibility and ensuring that much-needed funds are used
to save the lives of women and children.”
The recommendations, which come after more
than five months of in-depth discussions and work across a high-level group of
global leaders, were delivered at the conclusion of the second and final meeting
of the Commission. The goal is to improve transparency, ensure consistency in
reporting and more effectively track resources spent on reproductive, maternal,
newborn and child health.
“With mobile connectivity now widespread in
even the poorest countries, ICTs offer a powerful opportunity to bridge the
health development gap. New tools like social media can also be used to create
safe and empowering spaces for women to obtain accurate, up-to-the-minute health
information,” said ITU Secretary-General and co-vice chair of the Commission, Dr
Hamadoun Touré.
“What gets measured, gets done. Timely,
reliable and accessible health information is critical for improving health
outcomes for women and children,” says Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the
World Health Organization and co-vice chair of the Commission. “One of our top
priorities must be assisting countries to build the capacity needed to gather
this vital health information.”
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tasked the
Commission with developing a mechanism for holding donors accountable for their
pledges and holding countries responsible for how well the money is spent. The
Commission is a key element of the UN Global Strategy for Women's and Children’s
Health, which aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children under five
years of age by 2015, in order to help achieve the relevant Millennium
Development Goals.
The Commission also recognized that new
information and communication technologies (ICTs) will be instrumental in the
collection, sharing and analysis of health data.
The final report of the Commission will now be
submitted to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It will be reported at
upcoming international meetings, including the World Health Assembly in Geneva later this month, the G8 Summit in
Deauville,
France, and UN meetings in New York in September.
More details on the Commission can be found
at:
www.everywomaneverychild.org
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes,
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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Christy Feig,
Director of Communications
World Health Organization
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Marie-Agnes Heine,
Communications Officer
World Health Organization
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