Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is hosting an Every Woman Every Child consultation with more than 130 stakeholders in New Delhi between 26 and 27 February to discuss on global strategy for women, child and adolescents health.

The consultation will help seek insights on a range of women’s, children’s and adolescent health issues and include sessions on: progress and lessons learned from the Global Strategy experience since 2010, incorporating country perspectives, learning from current programmes, and placing a new focus on adolescent health and well-being, human rights, emergency and crisis settings, innovative financing, and cross-sectoral approaches.

A first draft of the Global Strategy will be shared for consultation at a high-level side meeting during the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May. The strategy will be accompanied by a draft implementation plan, which will be presented to the member-states of the World Health Assembly in May 2016.

To end preventable deaths of women, children, adolescents and improve their health and well-being, partners from government, the UN, civil society, private business, professional health organisations, academia and donor organisations are currently developing an updated version of the Global Strategy, first released in 2010 by UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. The strategy will align with the new 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and will be launched at the SDG Summit, in September 2015 at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The 2010-2015 Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health has been one of the most successful campaigns in global health history, raising more than $20 billion in new and additional resources for women and children since its launch in 2010. More than 300 partners have made measurable, time-bound commitments to reach the goals of the Global Strategy, including 70 governments, as well as private sector companies, NGOs and others.

The momentum of the Every Woman Every Child movement, which puts into action the Global Strategy, has spurred global progress towards reaching the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which call for a two-thirds reduction of under-five child deaths and a three-quarters reduction of maternal deaths by the end of 2015, dating from a 1990 baseline. At present, maternal and under-five child deaths have fallen by nearly 50 per cent from 1990 levels on a global level. However, in India, child deaths have halved and maternal mortality has fallen by more than two-thirds during this time. This is, in large measure, due to ambitious national programmes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK), which has improved institutional delivery by 83 per cent since 2005, and targeted focus on the 184 high priority districts that account for nearly 70 per cent of all infant and maternal deaths in India.

“India is proud to host stakeholders from around the world to discuss an issue of critical importance,” says CK Mishra, Additional Secretary at India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. “We know that when women and children are healthy, the benefits for communities and nations are far reaching. The updated Global Strategy will help ensure the world continues to prioritise and invest in their health and wellbeing over the next 15 years.”

“This stakeholder consultation in India comes at a critical time for women’s and children’s health,” says Amina Mohammed, the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Post-2015 Development Planning. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to learn from and build on the tremendous progress we’ve made during the MDG era and chart a course for the future that ensures all women, children, and adolescents everywhere, are able to live healthy and productive lives.”

The Global Strategy calls for a collaborative approach in which all partners play their part, urging each other to make commitments and to measure progress effectively and transparently against those commitments.

“Partnership is key to the success of Every Woman Every Child,” says Robin Gorna, executive director of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), an alliance of more than 650 organisations dedicated to improving the health and well-being of women, newborns, children and adolescents. “By working together at all levels, from global to local, we are committed to engaging the broadest range of organisations and people from around the world to ensure their voices are heard in the post-2015 Global Strategy, and that their realities and diverse contributions are clearly reflected in this work.”

Says Dr Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at the World Health Organization, which is coordinating the technical content of the Global Strategy: “Our progress has been tremendous, but the gaps we face remind us that there is much more to do, especially for adolescent girls, newborns, and for women’s and children’s health in humanitarian settings. We must redouble our efforts to confront the gender-based inequities that rob so many women and girls of the chance to realise their potential. These are serious challenges, but countries like India demonstrate that national commitment and leadership, starting from the top, are essential to success.”