20 September 2011
New York City, New York
On September 20, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a new Canadian contribution of $9 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) aimed at helping to ensure that global resources being allocated to improve the health of at risk mothers, newborns and children in developing countries will yield maximum benefits and results.
Canada's contribution to the WHO will help support the work of the independent Expert Review Group, which was established to monitor progress on the goals of the UN Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health until 2015. The contribution will also help donor and developing countries begin implementing the recommendations of the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health, which Prime Minister Harper co-chaired.
Supported by Canada's contribution, the WHO will focus its efforts on:
- improving civil registration systems to better track every birth and death, as well as cause of death;
- introducing information and communication technologies to enable countries to better monitor and evaluate progress in women's and children's health; and
- improving the tracking of resources and results dedicated to women's and children's health.
The UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health
In September 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, which generated $40 billion in commitments, including the $7.3 billion pledged through the G-8 Muskoka Initiative for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. To ensure that commitments would be met and results achieved, the Secretary-General established the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health with the mandate to develop recommendations for global reporting, oversight and accountability on women's and children's health.
Also on September 20, 2011, the Commission, co-chaired by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, officially released its report: Keeping Promises, Measuring Results, which outlines 10 action-oriented recommendations aimed at strengthening accountability for women's and children's health at both the country and global levels.
The Commission's recommendations
The report speaks to a better way of doing business, of keeping promises and measuring results. It provides a framework to track whether commitments to improve women's and children's health are being met, at both country and global levels, and to monitor progress, including whether the desired results are being achieved. The Commission recommends:
- improving the tracking of results and resource flows at country and global levels;
- identifying a core set of indicators to help measure progress and reduce duplicative requests placed on developing countries;
- proposing steps to improve health information and registration of vital events—births and deaths—in low-income countries;
- exploring opportunities for innovation in information technology to improve access to reliable information on resources and outcomes; and
- improving global-level coordination and accountability by establishing an independent Expert Review Group, which would regularly report to the UN Secretary-General on overall progress on the Global Strategy through to 2015.
Canada's total contribution to maternal, newborn and child health
During the June 2010 G-8 Muskoka Summit, Prime Minister Harper announced $1.1 billion in new funding for the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. The Government of Canada will also maintain existing program spending on maternal, newborn and child health at $1.75 billion over five years – for a total contribution of $2.85 billion toward MNCH initiatives between 2010 and 2015.
Since September 2010, Canada has announced almost $740 million out of the $1.1 billion in funding for Muskoka Initiative projects in Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Canada has now launched 48 Muskoka Initiative projects in 26 countries that are helping to reduce preventable deaths.
More information about the work that Canada is doing is available at www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/mnch.
