Maternal, newborn and child health

The world is facing a global health pandemic without a clear end in sight. Covid-19 presents a massive shock to already struggling health systems globally and the world economy. Countries are grappling with how best to address mortality and morbidity due to the virus. At the same time, the pandemic is disrupting the provision of life-saving maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (MNCAH) services, contributing to the erosion of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and adolescents, and further exposing and exacerbating systematic and structural racial, ethnic and gender inequities everywhere.

As the 1,000 partners of PMNCH, we are coming together to advocate urgent action to respond to the devastating effects of the pandemic on the health of women, children, and adolescents, as well as the societies and economies that support them. Our call to action can prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from becoming a lasting crisis, while forging stronger primary healthcare systems as a pathway to Universal Health Coverage and fostering a more equitable world. There is no time to lose.

Kieran’s background includes various marketing positions in the private sector with Disney, Warner Bros. and Citigroup and in the public sector with American Red Cross, Food Bank For NYC and March of Dimes. He joined PMNCH as a Marketing and Communications Consultant in 2019 and accepted his position as Communications Officer in May. Kieran is passionate about helping others, especially those around the world who are most in need of support and considers his volunteer mission to Africa among his most fulfilling experiences. He enjoys fitness, the outdoors, and meaningful trips to lesser known countries.

The Biden-Harris administration’s decision to rescind the egregious Mexico City Policy, or "Global Gag Rule", is a welcome move, which should now be reinforced by further action to reverse the great damage inflicted by COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable women, children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries.

The US administration’s decision to rescind the controversial Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, was warmly welcomed today by The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), an alliance of more than 1000 organizations from over 190 countries working to drive momentum towards global health targets for women, children and adolescents.

The PMNCH Board met virtually for its 26th meeting on 14 and 15 December 2020. The meeting primarily focused on the need to protect the progress made to date on improving the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents, given the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done in the context of deciding on what should be done going forward, as proposed by the PMNCH’s COVID-19 Call to Action campaign plan that was approved during the deliberations. In addition, the Board reflected on the work done to date in 2020, agreed on how PMNCH will restructure its governance to keep on responding to the challenges COVID-19 presents, while working more effectively with partners, and approved the proposals for a refreshed PMNCH brand and the proposed Digital Action Plan.

The Board meeting was led by the Board Chair, Rt Hon. Helen Clark who acknowledged the extraordinary times and the impact COVID-19 has had on the work of PMNCH. “Its impact has been comprehensively awful for economies, societies and health systems, and the greatest relevance to PMNCH is how it has threatened the gains that have been made in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.” She also recognized the work PMNCH has done during the pandemic including rallying funds to support women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health services. She said, “It was all the more encouraging to see serious pledges made to women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health last week” …referring to pledges made at Lives in the Balance Summit. “PMNCH worked so hard to see $20billion in pledges. It shows that partnerships like ours do occupy a unique space in the spectrum”.

More than 2000 delegates from over 100 countries will convene for the virtual Lives in the Balance: Improving the health of women, children and adolescents through Universal Health Coverage summit on 11 December, 2020.

They will take stock of how the COVID-19 has affected progress towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), launch new commitments towards improving the health of women, children and adolescents, and galvanize a participatory approach from all stakeholders to ensure we can ‘do better’ during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

On the eve of Universal Health Coverage Day, more than 1,600 viewers from 100+ countries who registered, tuned into a three-hour live broadcast co-hosted by PMNCH, CORE Group and UHC2030.

National leaders from around the world are responding to the needs and experiences of women, children and adolescents in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Youth leaders sit down with ministers and senior government leaders for brief discussions about key issues related to national commitments to increase action and accountability including:

The above summary table is based on preliminary analyses of the commitments provided to PMNCH. Each commitment can be found below.

10 December 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening three decades of improvement in health and social services for women, newborns, children and adolescents.