NGOs and Foundations Make New Pledges Committing to Maternal Health

UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon is about to launch the Global Strategy for Maternal and Child Health to accelerate progress on women’s and children’s health and is being met with great support from various organizations. CARE International has announced a $1.8 billion commitment, the United Nations Foundations has announced $400 million to improve the health of children and women globally by 2015, the Belinda Stronach Foundation commits up to $5 million over the next 5 years to empower girls and women, and World Vision International has made a commitment of US $1.5 billion to maternal, newborn and child health over five years, with $500 million of that from government or public sources.

CARE International supports the efforts of the UN Secretary General and renews and expands their commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at reducing child and maternal mortality by 2015. Through 2015, CARE International will invest over $1.8 billion in comprehensive strategies to improve maternal, newborn and child health and reduce mortality, particularly for the most vulnerable and marginalized populations. This commitment of targeted resources will bolster a comprehensive maternal and newborn health strategy that will focus on: 

• Investing in what works
• Partnering for change
• Reaching the most vulnerable and marginalized populations and reducing inequity
• Building political will and mobilizing action
• Prioritizing maternal health
• Empowering women and girls and increasing gender equity
• Strengthening health systems and linking them with communities, local government and other stakeholders in systems of mutual accountability
• Using innovative approaches to reach the most vulnerable populations

The United Nations Foundation has announced a $400 million commitment to improve the health of women and children around the world as part of a growing consensus that doing so is the best way to achieve all of the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Together with UN agencies and new and existing partner organizations, the UN Foundation will seek to address key global health priorities, including childhood immunizations, malaria prevention, improved health for adolescent girls, access to reproductive health supplies and services, clean cooking solutions, and up-to-date mobile technologies for improved health care.

The commitment includes a partnership with the Shell Foundation that will see the UN Foundation work to raise as much as $100 million over five years to provide clean-burning cooking stoves to women and families around the world, Bloomberg reports. To that end, the two foundations will seek cooperation and funding from other corporate, government, philanthropic, and academic entities to combat what many have identified as a significant danger to women's health in the developing world. Indeed, smoke from poorly ventilated cookstoves contributes to the early deaths of more than two million people a year.

The Belinda Stronach Foundation announced a new $5 million commitment over the next 5 years at the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City to further showcase its Commitment to Action to supporting the empowerment of girls and women through the G(irls)20 Summit.   
 
In September 2009 at CGI, The Belinda Stronach Foundation committed to create a platform that aimed to provide greater coordination of global advocacy efforts and awareness of the issues of girls and women, with a goal to ensure that those issues became part of the development narrative for the G8/G20 in 2010. As a result of this commitment, TBSF, together with its partners, hosted the first ever
G(irls)20 Summit in Toronto in June 2010, in the lead up to the G20. This groundbreaking and innovative summit brought together one girl from each G20 country, plus a representative from the African Union, to debate, discuss and design innovative ideas to help empower girls and women globally. Delegates used the Millennium Development Goals as their guide to discuss Child & Maternal Health, Economic Opportunity and Education for girls and women. Read the G(irls)20 Summit Communiqué here.

To date, the impact of the G(irls)20 Summit which garnered local, national and international attention, has led to over 128 million global media impressions. In addition, 11,315 people have signed up for the What’s Your Number? Campaign, over 70 non-governmental organizations have partnered with the campaign and 34 national and international spokespersons acted as Change Agents, including Deepa Mehta and K’naan.  In the face of such support, The Belinda Stronach Foundation is committing to convening the G(irls)20 Summit in advance of each G20 for the next five years, beginning with the 2011 G(irls)20 Summit in France.

Kevin Jenkins, president of World Vision International, addressed global leaders convened to launch the United Nations Secretary General's Global Strategy for Women and Children's Health in New York today, speaking on behalf of civil society. "This strategy seeks to correct one of the greatest inequalities of our age, putting right the tragic injustice of eight million children and more than 300,000 pregrant women who die every year from preventable causes," Jenkins will say at the launch event. World Vision International has made a commitment of US $1.5 billion to maternal, newborn and child health over five years, with $500 million of that from government or public sources.