No images? Click here
A selection of news, resources and opportunities for action and advocacy around women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health
December 2021
28th PMNCH Board meeting
7-8 December 2021 | Virtual
The PMNCH Board concluded a two-day meeting with bold priorities and a robust agenda for action for the coming year, contributing to the PMNCH 2021-2025 Strategy. During the discussion led by Board Chair Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, members agreed on the following four priorities for 2022:
- Continue to advocate strongly for the PMNCH Call to Action on COVID-19, especially for Ask 1 (enhance and protect access to RMNCAH services, including mental health), Ask 2 (SRHR and gender), and Ask 3 (quality and respectful care, including midwifery-delivered care). The Board also agreed on the need for greater focus on the prevention of violence against women, children and adolescents (Ask 7);
- Increase focus on women, children and adolescents within universal health coverage/primary health care, improving equity and access for resilience and recovery,
- Increase focus on adolescent well-being, including greater attention on the interconnection between SRHR and adolescent health and well-being; greater focus on mental health; and a greater focus on the impact of climate change on adolescents, as well as on women and children;
- Increase focus on ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths and stillbirths, including a positive focus on optimizing care for maternal, newborn and child health and well-being, and linking this effort to our work on the COVID-19 Call to Action, i.e., increased attention to midwifery and quality of midwifery, including respectful care (Asks 3 and 4).
The video recording of the board, documents and a summary of the board decisions can be found here.
Findings from a survey sent to the 249 signatories to the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement (MAYE) spearheaded by PMNCH, WHO, FP2030 and IYAFP were released. This survey is part of the accountability system for the Global Consensus Statement conducted to assess the progress made and the challenges identified during the first year of its implementation. Explore the survey and partners' reports here.
Read PMNCH's Executive Director's Statement on MAYE
This month, I’m proud to spotlight a long-time partner of PMNCH, International Health Partnership for UHC 2030 (UHC2030), the global movement to build stronger health systems for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). UHC makes quality health services available for all, ensuring people are not pushed into poverty by health care costs, and UHC2030 provides a global platform and space for multiple stakeholders to connect, work together and influence national and international commitments. PMNCH is proud to work with UHC2030 across a number of advocacy efforts, including the recently launched Coalition of Partnerships for UHC and Global Health. Continue reading
Universal Health Coverage Day: Leave No One’s Health Behind
Every year, the world commemorates 12 December as International Universal Health Coverage Day, we encourage everyone to use their voice and share their story to call on leaders for #HealthForAll. More information and related events are here.
Join the #Adolescent2030 campaign on social media - a global youth-led movement that aims to raise the visibility of adolescent well-being through personal stories of young people across the world. Check out the campaign page (in English, French and Spanish), including the social media toolkit and templates for you to share your perspective. Remember to tag @pmnch and use the campaign hashtag #Adolescents2030.
PMNCH is conducting a scoping review of investment cases developed in the last decade focusing on women’s, children’s and adolescent’s health (WCAH) and well-being in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this initiative is to equip partners with the best available resources and knowledge for effective evidence-based advocacy to support financing for WCAH. Partners are kindly requested to share any relevant documents that might be useful to this review. To share documents and for further details, please contact Mehr Shah at shahme@who.int
Please join us for the launch of the latest Countdown to 2030 equity and early childhood development country profiles and learn how they can be used for programming and advocacy. The webinar will also explain how the Countdown profiles complement the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health Profiles. Register here.
This video, relaunched to mark the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, provides practical guidance for women and children experiencing violence and what they can do to seek help and support. PMNCH produced this video with UNICEF, UN Women and WHO, including HRP. It is also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish.
Tell us what you think (5-10 mins)
Have you watched or used the above video? Please give us your feedback on the animation by completing our online survey. If you have used the animation in your projects or advocacy work and would be willing to take part in a focus group discussion or individual interview, please email us at pmnch@who.int.
PMNCH has produced a toolkit on ‘Sexual and reproductive health and rights in COVID-19’ as part of its Toolkits Series on COVID-19 and Women, Children and Adolescent Health. This toolkit aims to provide access to relevant guidance, tools and resources that can be useful to respond to, and advocate for, sexual and reproductive health and rights during these times with a view of providing action-oriented, user-friendly and policy-relevant information packages. Explore the toolkit here.
This short film from NCD Alliance and BBC Story Works, explains how integrated health checks could help eradicate preventable maternal mortality. Supporting testimonials and country perspectives used in this film were provided with support from PMNCH through its partners NIPI, The George Institute India and HRIDAY. Watch it here.
The International Association of Adolescent Health (IAAH) has awarded PMNCH Board Chair, Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Honorary Fellowship of IAAH. This fellowship recognizes her longstanding contribution to sustainable development, climate action, gender equality and women's leadership, peace and justice, transparency, accountability in governance, and health, including adolescent health and well-being. With this fellowship, IAAH also acknowledges the role PMNCH plays as the key partner for multi-stakeholder collaboration around adolescent health and its efforts in fostering excellence in analysis, alignment, advocacy, and accountability. Learn more
Social participation, universal health coverage and health security
PMNCH Board Chair, Helen Clark, et al. underline the importance of investing in social participation mechanisms and building government capacities to create, manage and sustain such mechanisms for more institutionalized engagement with people. Authors point to a recently released WHO handbook that guides policymakers on undertaking social participation. Read here.
COVID-19 and violence against women and children: time to mitigate the shadow pandemic
PMNCH's Helga Fogstad et al. examine the exponential rise in violence against women and children since the start of the pandemic. The authors call for a renewed focus on addressing this violence, coupled with more robust financing, better policies, and service delivery to help stem the rising tide. Read here.
Time to come clean on hand-washing investment
Achieving affordable access to soap, water, and sanitation for everyone is vital for all health. Rt Hon. Helen Clark and H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf outline steps needed to fix hand hygiene and fight the spread of disease. Read here.
GFF has launched a new data portal that brings together transparent, user-friendly data on women, children and adolescent health and nutrition, health systems, and financing to advance its country- and data-led approach. This data will facilitate decision making, transparency and mutual accountability.
To explore the data, access the portal here | Read the GFF 2020-2021 Annual Report
Amref has launched a global campaign to end vaccine injustice in Africa. The campaign is calling on world leaders to honour their commitments to low- and middle-income countries to leave no one behind in the race to bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic by mobilizing more vaccines for the continent.
For more information on the campaign and petition, visit here.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has an exciting new opportunity for a professor or associate professor with its world-renowned Maternal and Newborn Health Group. The post is full-time and permanent. Further details are available here. The closing date is 31st January 2022.
Check out what's happening in the women's, children's and adolescents' health and well-being space and share your events so we can feature them in the PMNCH Events Hub. You can submit your event➝ here.
Spotlight events
12 December | WHO
International Universal Health Coverage Day
14 December |Countdown to2030
Webinar: Countdown to 2030 profiles for action
Connect with us through our digital channels and join our WhatsApp Channel!
Copyright © 2021 PMNCH, All rights reserved.
