Today’s announcement of $5 million to UNICEF is addressing the humanitarian needs of people, especially children, affected by the crisis in Somalia.
Canada is supporting UNICEF’s operations that are improving the health, well-being and protection of children, women and their families by providing:
- treatment of malnutrition for 135,000 children under the age of five;
- essential vaccinations for 2.2 million children;
- improved access to water for 500,000 people;
- community-based care and support for 9,000 child victims of gender-based violence or military recruitment;
- access to quality education for 180,000 children; and,
- necessary inputs for protection of livelihoods for 90,000 crisis-affected families.
Canada helps save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain the dignity of people in developing countries affected by conflict, natural disasters, and situations of food insecurity requiring a humanitarian response by providing funding to support the appropriate, timely, and effective response of multilateral, international and Canadian humanitarian agencies.
For more information on Canada’s response to humanitarian crises around the world, please visit our web site.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosted the highly successful Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach Summit, which provided renewed momentum to advance maternal, newborn and child health as a global priority beyond 2015. The Summit took place from May 28 to 30, 2014, in Toronto, Ontario.
Over the course of the Summit, leaders and experts worked together to advance three priority themes:
Getting Results for Women and Children: Summit participants highlighted the benefits of coordinated action and the successes achieved since 2010. Leaders and experts also pointed to the importance of providing increased support for nutrition through key partners such as the Micronutrient Initiative, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and UNICEF. In addition, Summit participants welcomed the announcement that Germany would host the GAVI replenishment meeting in 2015 and called on all partners to increase their support to the GAVI Alliance.
Doing More Together Globally: Summit participants also called for increased efforts to work together. They also called for more timely, reliable, accurate and accessible health information as a critical catalyst for greater accountability within national health systems. In addition, they agreed that a wider spectrum of expertise and resources is needed, including from the private sector, foundations, science and tech communities, non-governmental organizations and civil society, in addition to traditional partners, local governments, and citizens.
Taking Real Action on Women’s and Children’s Health: Summit participants called on all partners to maintain progress and increase momentum on efforts to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goals 4 (to reduce child mortality) and 5 (to improve maternal health) by the end of 2015. Summit discussions also made clear that ending preventable deaths of women and children within a generation will mean carrying forward the lessons learned, including the need for political leadership, sustained financial commitments, robust accountability measures, and a renewed focus on the approaches that are proven to save the lives of women and children.
Participants welcomed Canada’s renewed commitment of $3.5 billion towards MNCH through 2015–2020 and called on other global donors to meet their commitments to women and children, leading up to and beyond 2015. Summit discussions also emphasized the need for common goals and for governments, international organizations, civil society, businesses and health leaders to ensure that ending preventable maternal, newborn and under-five child mortality by 2030 is a central priority within the post-2015 development agenda.
