UN Commission on Information and Accountability
New commitments in support of Every Woman Every Child represent a major step towards filling the gap between the investment needed and what is currently provided for women’s and children’s health. These investments will be measured and tracked to ensure accountability for commitments, actions and results.
The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health calls for the World Health Organization (WHO) to chair a process to determine the most effective international institutional arrangements for ensuring global reporting, oversight and accountability on women’s and children’s health.
In response, a Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health was created, which proposed a framework for global reporting, oversight and accountability on women’s and children’s health. Through ten recommendations presented in its report Keeping Promises, Measuring Results, the Commission has created a system to track whether donations for women’s and children’s health are made on time, resources are spent wisely and transparently, and whether the desired results are achieved.
The accountability framework proposed by the Commission will:
- Track results and resource flows at global and country levels;
- Identify a core set of indicators and measurement needs for women’s and children’s health;
- Propose steps to improve health information and registration of vital events – births and deaths – in low-income countries;
- Explore opportunities for innovation in information technology to improve access to reliable information on resources and outcomes.
The World Health Organization has launched a new web site on results, resources and oversight related to women’s and children’s health, in support of Every Woman Every Child. The site will track progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the Accountability Commission and inform the international community about the work of the independent Expert Review Group (iERG).