New York, USA — At a high-level dinner at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN officials joined Member States of the Partners in Population and Development (PPD) 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 (MDGs).
On this occasion, PPD announced a commitment to the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child movement, to ensure its programs and activities promote the inclusion of women and children as the beneficiary of all of its policy and program efforts. PPD will achieve this through knowledge sharing, capacity building, commodity and technology transfers, advocacy and policy dialogues, partnership and resource mobilization, diplomacy and monitoring.
UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
delivering speech at the special event
“South-South collaboration is more than just economic cooperation, it is about exchanging knowledge, experience and expertise”, said UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. “It is the foundation of a global and inclusive partnership for action.”
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. PPD’s commitment will help strengthen and harmonize joint action from their 26 members on essential interventions for women and children.
Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director of PPD at the event
“PPD member countries cover more than 57% of the population”, said Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director of PPD. “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, it is imperative that the international community 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 UNFPA. “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, Margaret Chan, UNFPA Executive Director, Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health-Related MDGs and for Malaria, Mr. Raymond Chambers, UN Office for South-South Cooperation Director, Yiping Zhou, and Ambassadors from over 26 countries.
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.
About Every Woman Every Child
Launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations 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
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