From Pledges to Action – Building Momentum to Improve Women’s and Children’s Health

By Lindsey Peugh, Research Associate – ICTPH

World leaders, along with private sector, international, non-governmental, and research organisations, came together in September 2010 for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit in New York to discuss strategies for accelerating progress toward achieving the MDGs by 2015. The event culminated with a pledge of more than $40 billion to save the lives of more than 16 million women and children across the world in a Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. On November 12-14 in New Delhi, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health will assemble the Partner’s Forum on Women’s and Children’s Health, hosted by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, to discuss ways to turn these pledges into action. Two days of high-level plenaries will discuss issues related to financing, innovative strategies, policies, and accountability and will work to develop consensus among stakeholders for scaling up progress to improve women’s and children’s health. ICTPH will be attending the conference to strategise with our public- and private-sector partners working in the field in order to build momentum to achieve these important goals. Stay tuned for updates from the conference and we look forward to your comments.