We all want our communities to be healthy and people everywhere to live healthy, happy, and productive lives.
While significant progress on global health has been made over the past few years, millions of women and children around the world still don’t have access to simple solutions like vaccines, adequate nutrition, and skilled midwives that protect our health. In 2013, an estimated 6.3 million children under the age of 5 died, and 289,000 women died of complications from pregnancy and childbirth.
Improving the health of women and children is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do: Everyone deserves to be healthy, and healthy families lead to healthy communities and a more stable world. Now is the time to act to end preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents.
The United Nations, under the leadership of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has intensified global efforts to strengthen women’s and children’s health, launching a Global Strategy and a movement called Every Woman Every Child in 2010.
This movement has brought together more than 300 partners – including governments, companies, and foundations – that have made commitments to support women’s and children’s health. And it’s showing results: In the last four years, maternal and child death rates have fallen in all 49 countries targeted in the Global Strategy.
Now, as world leaders prepare to finalize the next set of global development goals in September, a process in underway for updating the Global Strategy, and we need strong support from across sectors and communities to translate the strategy from words to lasting change.
Today, the Secretary-General is issuing a call to action while meeting with government ministers, private sector leaders, and others to commit to improve women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health.
You can join the UN and let leaders know you want to end all preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents and improve their health and well-being within a generation.
Join the #EWECisME social media campaign by following @UnfEWEC on Twitter and by using this hashtag to talk about your commitment to healthier women, children, and adolescents. You can also learn more about the Every Woman Every Child movement and comment on the updated strategy at everywomaneverychild.org.