Canada’s leadership in MNCH will help improve health and nutrition in Nigeria
August 7, 2014 – Waterloo, Ontario – Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
Today Lois Brown, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, hosted a round table along with Peter Braid, Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo and Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Communities, as well as with local stakeholders, to discuss the way forward to continue to improve the lives of mothers and their children in the developing world. This meeting was part of the consultations announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach Summit which took place in Toronto last May.
PS Brown is holding a series of MNCH round tables in Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan during the month of August. PS Brown took the opportunity to announce support to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to improve maternal, newborn and child health in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is a valued development partner, and I am pleased to reaffirm Canada’s commitment to assisting the Government of Nigeria to advance its health system,” said PS Brown. “The project announced today, which will be implemented by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, aims to improve the delivery of maternal, newborn and child health, Canada’s top development priority.”
The round table focused on how to ensure that global commitments deliver real results to those in need while remaining accountable to Canadian taxpayers. Canada is committed to scaling up interventions that will have the greatest impact, in the areas of strengthening health systems, improving nutrition, and reducing the burden of leading diseases.
“The support announced today to the Clinton Health Access Initiative will help save the lives of children in Nigeria,” added Minister Paradis. “Diarrhea is a leading cause of infant mortality, and the project announced today will help put a simple and low-cost treatment into the hands of Nigerian parents. We must continue to encourage proven and reliable solutions, and continue our work to ensure that maternal, newborn and child health remains a global priority.”
In 2010, Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched the Muskoka Initiative, which put maternal, newborn and child health at the forefront of global development efforts. Thanks to Canadian leadership and subsequent global action, maternal mortality rates are declining and millions more children are celebrating their fifth birthday. Recognizing there is much more work to be done, Prime Minister Harper hosted the Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach Summit in Toronto in 2014. At the summit, Canada committed an additional $3.5 billion to continue support through to 2020, and issued the Toronto Statement, which reaffirms global consensus on a shared commitment to end the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children under the age of five within one generation.
Sandrine Périon
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
343-203-6238
sandrine.perion@international.gc.ca
Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
343-203-7700
media@international.gc.ca
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