Every Woman Every Child.
Every Woman Every Child.
United Nations
27 September 2011
Every Woman Every Child is an unprecedented global effort, spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to mobilize and intensify global action to improve the health of women and children around the world. Working with leaders from governments, multilateral organizations, the private sector and civil society, Every Woman Every Child aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children and improve the lives of millions more.
What is Every Woman Every Child?
Launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, Every Woman Every Child aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015. It is an unprecedented global effort that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world. The effort puts into action the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which presents a roadmap on how to enhance financing, strengthen policy and improve service on the ground for the most vulnerable women and children.
Why does this matter?
Every Woman Every Child provides a new opportunity to improve the health of hundreds of millions of women and children around the world, and in so doing, to improve the lives of all people. The health of women and children is critically important to almost every area of human development and progress, and directly impacts our success in achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by world leaders in 2000.
Research has conclusively demonstrated that the health of women and children is the cornerstone of public health. Healthy women and children create healthy societies. Healthy societies, in turn, are the foundation upon which nations build successful economies and create prosperity for their people. And prosperity, as we know, is essential to political stability and social harmony.
What can be done?
Every Woman Every Child recognizes that all actors have an important role to play in improving women’s and children’s health. More than $40 billion was pledged at the 2010 launch, and numerous partners have made additional, and critical, financial, policy and service delivery commitments, but more help is needed. The Secretary-General is asking the international community for the additional commitments necessary to take Every Woman Every Child past the tipping point. This would mean saving the lives of 16 million women and children, preventing 33 million unwanted pregnancies, ending stunting in 88 million children, and protecting 120 million children from pneumonia by 2015.
This is an enormous and unprecedented undertaking. The stakes are high, and the cost of failure is great. But the rewards of success are greater still. They include a better life for all of us, and a healthy future for women and children everywhere.
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* More about Every Woman Every Child at: >>> http://medicinezine.com/information/every-woman-every-child/ <<<
** Every Woman Every Child website: >>> everywomaneverychild.org <<<
