New York, 25 February – Global action to improve the health of women and children will be enhanced through  a new programme to share ideas and successes among developing countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced yesterday.
 
The Secretary-General joined members of Partners in Population and Development at a high-level dinner last night at UN Headquarters in New York to highlight the critical role of South-South collaboration as a means to advance women’s and children’s health and the health-related Millennium Development Goals.
 
“South-South collaboration is more than just economic cooperation, it is about exchanging knowledge, experience and expertise,” said Mr, Ban. “It is the foundation of a global and inclusive partnership for action.”
 
Partners in Population and Development, which consists of Member States, said its new  commitment to the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child movement, will ensure that  its programmes and activities promote the inclusion of women and children as the beneficiary of all of its policy and programme efforts. Partners in Population and Development aims to achieve this through knowledge sharing, capacity building, commodity and technology transfers, advocacy and policy dialogues, partnership and resource mobilization, diplomacy and monitoring.
 
Every Woman Every Child is an unprecedented global movement spearheaded by the UN Secretary-General to mobilize and intensify global action to improve the health of women and children around the world. Partners in Population and Development’s commitment will help strengthen and harmonize joint action from their 26 members on essential interventions for women and children.
 
In a letter sent to the Secretary-General, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Chair of PPD and Honourable Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India said, “PPD commits to mobilizing political support and advocating for allocation of required resources in the Member States - PPD as an organization will align its strategic directions to ensure that improving maternal and child health is an integral part of its programme agenda.”
 
“Partners in Population and Development member countries cover more than 57 per cent of the population”, said Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director of Partners in Population and Development. “Our commitment to the health and well-being of women and children, through South-South collaboration, will have unprecedented global impact.”
 
With 675 days left until the deadline for the MDGs, there has been greater urgency in the international community to come together to accelerate progress, especially on the health-related MDGs. South-South collaboration is an important driver of progress and can make a vital impact on the health and well-being of the most vulnerable women and children, now and for the future.
 
“Every Woman Every Child has taught us we can do things differently and get drastically improved results”, said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). “This movement is putting women and children at the centre, respecting and protecting their rights, including ensuring access to family planning services so that women and girls can make informed choices in life. The UN system will continue to innovate and partner with organizations like PPD to maximize our collective impact.”
 
The dinner was attended by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, Executive Director of Partners in Population and Development, Dr. Joe Thomas, WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan, UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health-Related MDGs and for Malaria, Mr. Raymond Chambers, and Ambassadors from over 26 UN Member States.
  About PPD

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an intergovernmental alliance comprising of 26 developing countries. This alliance provides the mechanism to promote partnership and cooperation between the member countries, towards achieving the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Programme of Action (PoA) and also the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It holds a status of Permanent Observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.
The current member countries of the Alliance are, Bangladesh, Benin, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia,  The Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The PPD member countries cover more than 57% of the global population. For more information visit: www.partners-popdev.org
 
About Every Woman Every Child
Launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, Every Woman Every Child is an unprecedented global movement that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world. Every Woman Every Child puts into action the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which presents a roadmap on how to enhance financing, strengthen policy and improve service on the ground for the most vulnerable women and children. For more information visit: www.everywomaneverychild.org. 

Media Contact:
Megan Gemmell, United Nations, Every Woman Every Child, +1 212-963-1365, gemmell@un.org
 
Melanie Prudhomme, UN Department of Public Information, +1-917-367-3541, prudhommem@un.org

Masuma Billah, Partners in Population and Development, +88 01716 011683, masuma@ppdsec.org, Skype: masuma.billah