Countdown to 2015

 

FIGO is an active participant in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH).Recently the PMNCH organised a conference Countdown to 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa between 17- 19 April 2008.

FIGO was well represented in this conference by the Chief Executive, Chair and Co-chair as well as three members of the Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health (SMNH) Committee, Chair of the Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights (WSRR) Committee.

 

 

       

From the top left clockwise: Dr Carlos Füchtner (past member of the SMNH Committee), Dr André Lalonde ( Chair of the SMNH Committee), Professor Hamid Rushwan (FIGO Chief Executive), Dr Héctor Romeo Menéndez Arriola (member of the SMNH Committee), Dr Kamini Rao (Chair of the WSRR Committee), Dr Pius Okong (Co-chair of the SMNH Committee)

 

The Countdown to 2015 is a collaborative effort of concerned partners and individuals, to track progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in reducing child and maternal mortality.

The Countdown aims to establish a regular process through which national and international policy-makers, programme implementers, development and media partners and researchers can review progress in reducing maternal, newborn and child mortality, hold themselves accountable, and renew their commitments.

 

2008 Objectives

 

·          To launch an international Report - including country profiles - describing the coverage of key MNCH interventions in 68 high-burden countries, their trends since 1990, and inequities by wealth quintiles;

·          To share stories of success and findings on barriers and solutions for rapid scaling-up of effective MNCH interventions;

·          To review new initiatives for aid harmonization and develop coordinated institutional commitments to maternal, newborn and child health efforts;

·          To provide updated information on national and international resource flows for MNCH and identify financial gaps towards achieving universal coverage;

·          To review new initiatives for accountability and aid harmonization and develop coordinated institutional commitments to maternal, newborn and child health efforts;

·          To sensitize Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to maternal, newborn and child health.

 

Expected Outcomes

 

·          Information of progress and current MNCH intervention coverage levels in 68   countries disseminated;

·          Share successful country experiences for scaling-up effective interventions at the country level;

·          Develop firm commitments to intensify action to scale-up maternal, newborn and child health interventions made by national and international policy- and decision-makers (including with help of IPU Parliamentarians);

·          Modalities for aid harmonization and partnership at the country level and commitments made to increased investment in MNCH.

 

The Conference produced two important documents: