India to hold global meet to chalk out vision for women health

India will host a key global meeting this week to help draft a blueprint that will feed into UN efforts to chalk out key targets to improve health of women, child and adolescents in the years beyond 2015.
To be held in New Delhi from February 26 to February 27, the 'Every Woman Every Child' Stakeholder Consultation would be attended by more than 100 governments, civil societies and international organisations from around the world.
"In majority of the international forums, we have actually been saying that international policies and programmes need to be country focussed. I am thankful that the organisers have taken this call and decided to let consultation be led by India," said C K Mishra, additional secretary of the Health Ministry.

He said there was Millennium Development Goals of the UN till 2015, which many countries have achieved while some are yet to fulfil the target.
"So we need to come up with a strategy post 2015 and we feel that in this post 2015 strategy, there is a very strong case for women, child and adolescent issues to get priority. We have to now start looking at sustainable development agenda. Whatever consultations we do, will feed into the post 2015 sustainable development agenda," he said.
He hoped that the thought process will become the backbone of the strategy which will be formalised.

The new global strategy which is set to be released at the UN General Assembly in September alongside the new Sustainable Development Goals will provide a road map for improving the health of women, children and adolescents between 2016 and 2030.
It will build on the UN Secretary General's landmark 2010 global strategy for women and children's health which created that 'every women every child' movement and helped generate 20 billion US Dollars in new and additional funding.
"Our progress has been tremendous but the gaps we face remind us that there is much more to do especially for adolescent girls, newborns and for women and children's health in humanitarian settings," said Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director General for Family, Women and Children's Health, WHO.