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

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, galvanize 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

Resources: 

Round 1- Priorities for the Global Strategy, Full Report

Round 1-Priorities for the Global Strategy, Executive Summary 

Ronda 1- Prioridades para la Estrategia Mundial, Sumario Ejecutivo                                                                                                               
1ère étape – Priorités pour la Stratégie Mondiale, Sommaire Exécutif