A selection of news, resources and opportunities for action and advocacy around women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health

May 2022

Lives in the Balance: Delivering commitments in humanitarian and fragile settings  

Thursday, 19 May | 14:00-16:30 CET | 8:00-10:30 EDT 

Join us for the 4th in a series of Lives in the Balance e-summits, hosted by PMNCH and CORE Group. This event will be moderated by Mercy Juma, Broadcast Journalist for BBC Africa, and feature a Leadership Dialogue led by PMNCH Board Chair Helen Clark. It will mobilize and deliver on commitments in humanitarian and fragile settings severely affected by the pandemic, and that continue to experience conflicts, coups, and other social and economic fallout. Register here

World Health Assembly: Share your events

World Health Assembly takes place from 22-28 May. PMNCH is bringing together all the events happening in the women's, children's and adolescents' health and well-being space. We want to hear from you! Explore our events hub, learn what your partners are doing and share your events so they can be featured too! 

Upcoming Events

PMNCH welcomes Aditi Sivakumar new Board Vice-Chair under 30

PMNCH is pleased to announce that Aditi Sivakumar, Founder of My Empowerment Platform, has been appointed by PMNCH Board Chair, Rt Hon Helen Clark, as the Board Vice-Chair representing youths under 30 years old. Aditi is a medical student, philanthropist, women's and youth's rights advocate and a champion for elevating the voices of underserved communities. She joins other PMNCH young leaders comprising one-fourth of all PMNCH leadership positions. Continue reading here

Women, children and adolescents face extreme vulnerability in conflict—and so do the health workers striving to protect them

This commentary calls for a multi-sectoral response to ensure continuity of services for women, children and adolescents in conflict and humanitarian settings, and more significant investment in safety and protection measures for health and aid workers who risk their own lives to provide support and care to vulnerable women, children and adolescents in the most challenging circumstances. Read here

By Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair and Kersti Kaljulaid, UN Secretary General's Global Advocate for Every Woman Every Child

Can COVID-19 inspire progress in maternal immunization?

Vaccination during pregnancy is a powerful public health tool but underused. New insights from the pandemic may be just the spark needed to energize progress. This article from Path explores current efforts, the road ahead, and reasons for optimism. Read here 

Browse Path's new COVID-19 maternal immunization resource library 

Child health and well-being  dashboard: accountability for children's rights

Developed by WHO, UNICEF and CAP 2030,  this dashboard allows policymakers, governments and organizations to easily monitor and compare a selection of indicators, track progress, and make evidence-based decisions about priority areas for action and resource allocation for children's health and well-being.

Explore the dashboard here | Read The Lancet commentary 

“Separated during the first hours”—Postnatal care for women and newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic

This global study surveyed maternal and newborn healthcare providers in 61 countries and shows how COVID-19 disrupted the availability and quality of routine postnatal care (PNC) services in all settings, including low-, middle- and high-income countries. Read the study published in PLOS Global Public Health by Aline Semaan et al. 

Success depends on collaboration: Cross-sector technical brief on maternal and newborn health and nutrition in humanitarian settings

This brief from the IAWG Maternal and Newborn Health Sub working group aims to bolster collaborative effort by providing nutrition and health program staff working in humanitarian settings with guidelines, tools, resources, and examples of best practices. It promotes linkages and integrated service delivery across nutrition and maternal and newborn health in humanitarian response. Read here 

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency: Empowering communities and changing lives

This month, I’m proud to spotlight the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), one of the 700+ members of the PMNCH NGO constituency, working on the ground in 118 countries to empower communities and change lives by providing sustainable community development and disaster relief.   In Ukraine, where ADRA has served communities and the surrounding region for more than 30 years, they deployed emergency response teams to evacuate displaced families and escalated resources to assist refugees who crossed into neighbouring regions with educational programs, children’s services, job placement, health care, and psychological counselling.

ADRA is also supporting others living in crisis areas with life-changing support and services Continue reading here

Would you like to nominate a PMNCH member for their outstanding work for the health and rights of women, children and adolescents throughout the world? Please email pmnch@who.int  (subject: Partner Spotlight), and we will follow up for more information.   

The COVID-19 pandemic and intimate partner violence

BMC Public Health has launched a special collection on COVID-19 and intimate partner violence (IPV) and welcomes articles submitted from all geographic regions and a  range of appropriate methodological approaches including quantitative, qualitative, and systematic reviews. For specific criteria of articles and submission deadlines visit here

Call for case studies to update the Global AA-HA! (Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!). 

The Global AA-HA! is undergoing a revamp and update for which WHO and partners seek case studies on programmes and policies that address adolescent well-being as per the Definition and Conceptual Framework for Adolescent Well-being. If you wish to submit a case study from your organization and partners for consideration, please contact Sophie Marie Kostelecky at kosteleckys@who.int before 16 May.

Youth health workers from Benin share lessons from an SRHR workshop

 FIGO's Advocating for Safe Abortion Project worked with Benin's National College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to organise a capacity building workshop on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Learn about the workshop and two young people's perspectives on  Comprehensive Sexuality Education and strengthening access to safe abortion in their workplaces and broader communities. Read here

In case you missed it 

Promoting adolescent well-being to secure our future

This side event discussed some of the gaps identified and recommendations made during eight regional multi-stakeholder consultations from June to August 2021 to reach a broad agreement on policies and programming to promote adolescent well-being.

Available on-demand in English|French|Spanish 

The PMNCH job board features maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health opportunities. We invite you to explore the pages and share announcements that may relate to job vacancies or vendor opportunities that you would like us to amplify. Visit here 

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