It’s been another whirlwind day here at the UN Week Digital Media Lounge.
The theme for today was definitely all about Women and Children.
This new Girl Effect video is the best way to start off this blog post:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg
I watched a live stream of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon from the UN Week Digital Media Lounge unveiling a $40 billion pledge from foundations, non-profits, governments and businesses that will go towards the MDG goals of improving the health of women and children.
MDG 4 and 5, which are to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health by 2015 are called the most “neglected” of the MDGs and development experts believe that this $40 billion commitment will have wide-reaching impact for eradicating poverty and stimulating economic growth.
The announcement came on the last day of the U.N. summit in which 140 countries are set to renew their commitment to meet the MDGs.
U.N officials called the global strategy “a road map that identifies the finance and policy changes needed as well as critical interventions that can and do improve health and save lives.”
While some organizations like Oxfam have said that they are “skeptical of big announcements at summits,” it’s a positive sign that countries around the world are becoming more receptive to “gender-responsive budgeting.” In fact, an official from Rwanda announced today that they are looking at more gender-responsive budgeting in their healthcare programs. Rwanda has seen a 48% reduction in child mortality and a 64% decline in maternal mortality.
However, it is still important to note that U.N officials have noted that $27 billion of the money being announced by governments is new money, the rest of the money had already been committed earlier this year when a global strategy for tackling maternal/child health was first disclosed. Oxfam estimates that we need closer to 80 billion to achieve our goals. It is also important to note that $8.6 billion of the money is coming from low income/resource countries.
Following Secretary General Bi Ki-Moon’s speech, countries, organizations, and businesses stepped up to pledge their commitments to maternal child health.
Other highlights:
- Johnson & Johnson reinforcing a commitmentthey made a few weeks ago to provide 200 million mebendazole treatments to treat 100 million children for intestinal worms.
- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Australia Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, and Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announcing a five-year public/private global alliance to contribute to the goal of reducing the unmet need for family planning by 100 million women, expand skilled birth attendance and facility-based deliveries, and increase the numbers of women and newborns receiving quality post-natal care by 2015.
- CARE commits $1.8 billion over the next five years.
- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed $1.5 billion.
- Ted Turner’s UN Foundation announced $400 million.
- Countries like Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Norway, China, Ethiopia, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India and Brazil all pledging to devote more resources to maternal and child health issues. Many of the countries touched on skilled health worker strengthening and training, integrating existing health programs, scaling up free and cost-effective health services, improving education and giving women improved employment opportunities.
- Quote from President Obama on the US Global Development Policy: “We need to be big-hearted and hard-headed. In our global economy, progress in even the poorest countries can advance the prosperity and security of people far beyond their borders, including my fellow Americans.”
Want to know more about what happened today at the lounge? I encourage you to head over to check out the video of Day 2 at the Digital Media Lounge put together by VOICE bloggers (Twitter:@voiceteam).
I also met reporter Julie Mollins (Twitter: @jmollins) from Reuters AlertNet. She has put together an array of fantastic interviews from the MDG summit. Check them out here
Phew! Lots of commitments, tweets, blogs and video today. We can’t let the momentum of this week end after Friday. We need to keep raising our voices so that we stay on target for achieving the MDGs by 2015!
