Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth provides the first-ever national, regional and global estimates of preterm birth. The report shows the extent to which preterm birth is on the rise in most countries, and is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under five, after pneumonia.
Addressing preterm birth is now an urgent priority for reaching Millennium Development Goal 4, calling for the reduction of child deaths by two-thirds by 2015. This report shows that rapid change is possible and identifies priority actions for everyone. Read more...
Updates
New Global Report: 15 Million Babies Born Too Soon, Over 1 Million Die Each Year
May 2nd, 2012
Don’t Forget the Girls
April 18th, 2012
By: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund; Originally posted on Huffington Post
As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues.
Sadly, millions of women in developing countries still lack even the most basic care during pregnancy and too often have no one to assist during births. As a result, 1,000 women die every day from complications in pregnancy or childbirth, and countless others suffer debilitating injuries, such as obstetric fistula. Moreover, 215 million women still lack access to modern contraceptives and are, therefore, unable to make fundamental decisions about whether or when to become pregnant. Read more...
UN Launches Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children
March 23rd, 2012
NEW YORK, 23 March 2012 – UNICEF and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today launched a high-level commission to improve access to essential but overlooked health supplies that could save the lives of millions of women and children every year.
“Making sure that women and children have the medicines and other supplies they need is critical for our push to achieve the MDGs,” said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “The Commission will tackle an overlooked but vital aspect of health systems, and ensure that women and children are protected from preventable causes of death and disease.” Read more...
DFID to Host Family Planning Summit
March 8th, 2012
The UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) has announced that this July, it will host a Family Planning summit with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners. The event signals a major political commitment as well commitments by donors, corporations, and others to work towards meeting family planning needs, such as information, services, and supplies, for developing countries by 2020. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Intel and UNFPA Increase Training and Technology to Improve Maternal Health
February 9th, 2012
By: Smita Gaith, Communications and Program Intern
Intel Corporation and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have recently announced their partnership to increase skills and knowledge of health workers around the world. The joint endeavor is part of Intel’s efforts to maintain and build on its commitment to the United Nations’ Every Woman, Every Child initiative, which is focused on training 1 million community health workers by 2015. Read more...
Speakers of African Parliaments Adopt Resolution on Declaration of Commitment to MNCH
October 26th, 2011
Johannesburg, South Africa, October 24 – African Speakers of Parliaments and Presidents of Senate have unanimously adopted a landmark resolution on a Declaration of Commitment to prioritize parliamentary support for increased policy and budget action on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in African countries. Read more...
2015+: Reclaiming A Seat At The Table
October 19th, 2011
A Call for Engagement by the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Community
By: Alicia Ely Yamin is Director of the Program on the Health Rights of Women and Children at the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. She served on the 2011 PMNCH Commitments Report advisory Panel.
It is understandable that the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) communities have generally maintained a critical distance from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) process, as MDG 5 represented a dramatic departure from the hard-won, holistic vision of reproductive health set out in the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and reaffirmed in the subsequent Beijing Declaration. Read more...
UN Secretary General Progress Update on Every Woman Every Child
September 20th, 2011
Private sector involvement in women’s and children’s health is crucial to saving 16 million lives, says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praises ‘historic effort’ of private sector in Every Woman Every Child but warns that pace of implementation must be accelerated
New York, 20 September 2011 – The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today praised the involvement of leading businesses in the global effort to tackle women’s and children’s health. During the Every Woman Every Child meeting attended by Heads of State, CEOs of the private sector and NGOs, and other UN and government officials, the Secretary-General announced progress in the effort to save women’s and children’s lives, and highlighted new and game-changing commitments made during the past year. Read more...
Analysing the Commitments to Advance the Global Strategy for Women’s & Children’s Health
September 20th, 2011
PMNCH Report 2011 - Massive Push to Improve the Health of Women and Children: Tens of billions have been committed from both rich and poor countries
20 SEPTEMBER 2011 | GENEVA/NEW YORK - In only one year, more than 100 countries, foundations, multilateral organizations, the UN, the private sector, and academic and professional associations have made unprecedented financial and political commitments to greatly improve the health of women and children. Read more...