UN FORMS COMMISSION ON EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES FOR WOMEN’S AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH

UN FORMS COMMISSION ON EFFECTIVE USE OF RESOURCES FOR WOMEN'S AND
CHILDREN'S HEALTH

The United Nations is
<"http://www.everywomaneverychild.org/userfiles/file/Press_release_accountability_16_Dec_final.pdf">establishing
a high-level commission charged with developing an accountability
framework that will link resources committed to women and children's
health with the results they are intended to achieve.

"Strengthening accountability is critical if we are to save the lives
of more women and children," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on
the establishment of the Commission. "We must ensure that partners
deliver on their promises but, in turn, it is crucial that they know
whether investments are leading to sustainable progress."

The new body – the Commission on Information and Accountability for
Women's and Children's Health – will develop an accountability
framework to help countries monitor where resources go and how they
are spent, and will provide the evidence needed to show which
programmes are most effective to save the lives of women and children.

The Commission will be co-chaired by the President of Tanzania, Jakaya
Kikwete, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. The
Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union,
Hamadoun Touré, the Director-General of the UN World Health
Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, will be the vice-chairs of the
Commission, which will hold its first meeting on 26 January next year
and present its final report by May.

"Resources come with an expectation of results," Dr. Chan said.
"Accountability is vital. It means keeping promises and measuring
results. To measure results, we need much stronger systems for health
information. The Commission will guide us in all these areas."

Its establishment follows the adoption by stakeholders of the Global
Strategy for Women's and Children's Health at the Millennium
Development Goals Summit in New York in September. The Millennium
Development Goals are eight anti-poverty targets which form a
blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and all the world's
leading development institutions. In September, stakeholders also
committed $40 billion in resources to a global effort to save the
lives of 16 million women and children by 2015.

The Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health called for the
UN World Health Organization (WHO) to establish a process to determine
the most effective international institutional arrangements for global
reporting, oversight and accountability for women's and children's
health.

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, including births and deaths, in
low-income countries; and explore opportunities for innovation in
information technology to improve access to reliable information on
resources and outcomes.

Mr. Harper said the Commission "will help ensure that countries follow
through on the commitments they made at the G-8 Summit in Muskoka
(Canada) and the Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York to
help women and children, and that resources are spent in an effective
and responsible way."