G7 Letter

The G7 Summit in Germany in early June is a key moment to request support from G7 member-states on issues of great importance to us. This includes the ambitious but achievable goal of ending of preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths by 2030 in the post-2015 negotiations; improving access to quality health services for women, children and adolescents everywhere, including those in fragile and conflict settings, and making sure these and other issues are linked to the updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health to be launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2015.

 

If you would like to have the name of your organisation included on this letter, please send an email to Kel Currah (kel@whatworldstrategies.com)

Letter:

Putting women’s, children’s and adolescents health at the centre of the G7 agenda

The G7’s efforts to improve global health rank among its greatest development achievements. G7 leaders have played an important role in shaping and supporting global initiatives that have made a significant impact including the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Muskoka Initiative. Launched at the G8 Summit in 2010, the Muskoka Initiativehas contributed to substantial progress in improving the healthof women, newborns and children, including through galvanizing international support and commitments for the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health (the Global Strategy). The recently published report on the Global Strategy named it as the fastest growing public health partnership in history, with 2.4 million women’s and children’s lives saved since 2010

The forthcoming Schloss Elmau G7 Summit will address issues that are fundamental to improving the health and rightsof women, newborn, children and adolescents, particularly women’s empowerment and resilience in health systems. Through the G7’s leadership, the international community can empower women and support increased resilience by strengthening health care systems, fighting infectious diseases, improving sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child & adolescent health and ensuring that the unfinished business of the health-related Millennium Development Goals is not lost in the transition to the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Therefore, we urge G7 leaders to include commitments in the Summit Communique to:

• Renew commitments made under Muskoka and the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health such as A Promise Renewed, Every Newborn Action Plan and Family Planning 2020 and ensure they are met;

• Welcome and support the renewed Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health, to be launched in September 2015;

• Support the ambitious but achievable goal of ending of preventable maternal, newborn and child deathsby 2030 in the post-2015 negotiations and agree to tackle inequality by focusing on those groups that are furthest behind;

• Provide financial and non-financial resources to deliver the post-2015 framework and support countries to raise and spend greater domestic resources on universal public services, including viathe newly established Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child to be launched at the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015. 

• Deliver an ambitious commitment on aid expenditure in support of increased domestic resource mobilisation and align ODA for the health and rightsof women, children and adolescents, includingthrough the Global Financing Facility;

• Ensure that every woman, every child, every adolescent everywhere, including fragile and conflict affected contexts, has access to quality RMNCAH health services and adequate nutrition.

Addressing the rights and needs of women and children is key to creating sustainable change and development. The last five years of the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health have shown that well-planned, coordinated interventions can achieve results and save lives. 2015 is the time to build on this achievement, renew commitments and support strong strategies that will end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths by 2030and improve overall health. In this crucial year, we call on for G7 leadership to make this a reality. 

Sincerely,

 

The undersigned organisations: