April 9, 2015

Priorities for the Global Strategy: A report on first round consultations

This story originally appeared on PMNCH’s website here. Reposted with permission.

PMNCH has released a new report, synthesising the views from the first round of consultations on updating the Global Strategy, which took place between January and March 2015. More than 4,550 organizations and individuals contributed in various ways and feedback into the report comes from a wide-ranging consultation process involving: joint statements from youth groups and SRHR alliances— with some intrepid networks operating their own bespoke surveys; submission of regional strategies from the East African Community and African Union; Citizens’ Hearings attracting over a thousand people held in Asia, Africa and Latin America; close to 200 school children in India who also had a chance to add their voice. These were a few of many that contributed though discussions, meetings and the online survey.

This report, developed to contribute to the process of updating the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, in advance of its launch in September 2015 alongside the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), will provide a timely input into the first draft of the Global Strategy, expected for release in early May 2015.

This report confirms a number of things such as:

• There was strong support for an updated Global Strategy, often seen as synonymous with the Every Woman Every Child implementation platform, and high expectations that it will build on the previous Strategy, galvanise a sharpened sense of purpose and maintain global and national momentum for women, adolescents and children.
• The themes identified by the Global Strategy Working Groups resonate with this global audience.
  Equity must remain one of the principles of the updated Global Strategy. Indeed, there were very strongly expressed views across all consultation feedback about the value of women’s and children’s lives, their rights to services, equality, and dignity.
• The new focus on adolescent health, intersectoral working and humanitarian settings are widely appreciated and resoundingly endorsed.

A number of interesting issues arose across the consultation:

• There was some trepidation that hard won attention to neglected challenges (newborn lives, stillbirths, sexual and reproductive health and rights) might be put at risk depending on where both the Global Strategy and the larger global policy process around the SDGs land later in 2015;
• There were mixed views about the extent to which the Strategy should focus on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) ‘core business’ as opposed to embracing whole-of-life issues.
• There was wide acknowledgement that the health challenges facing women and children were complex and increasingly extend beyond the RMNCAH core agenda

Round 1 – Priorities for the Global Strategy
pdf, 1.16Mb
Full report

Round 1 – Priorities for the Global Strategy
pdf, 219kb
Executive summary

Ronda 1 – Prioridades para la Estrategia Mundial
pdf, 223kb
Sumario ejecutivo

1ère étape – Priorités pour la Stratégie mondiale
pdf, 192kb
Sommaire exécutif

PMNCH will take a further round of consultations on the first draft of the Global Strategy during the month of May 2015 through the consultation web-hub: (www.WomenChildrenPost2015.org).