Women leaders take action for women and children during COVID-19

Women leaders from countries ranging from Estonia, New Zealand, Senegal and Costa Rica (full list below) convened to take action to protect some of the most vulnerable communities around the world in the context of COVID-19 and highlight the unique role of women and adolescents in responding to the pandemic. Meeting at a high-level roundtable event organized byEvery Woman Every Child (EWEC) alongsideThe Partnership for Maternal, Newborn& Child Health (PMNCH) andWomen Deliver, the leaders agreed that the pandemic represents an unprecedented threat to the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents worldwide that must be addressed by targeted policy and resource allocation. “COVID-19 is not the great leveller, but rather the great amplifier of inequality. That gives us a clear duty to protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and to address the root causes of inequality. We must act now – while the storm is raging – or be ashamed by the number of lives swept away on our watch,” said Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Board Chair of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, in anOpEd published ahead of the event, co-authored by H.E. Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia and Co-Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child; Jorge Alcocer Varela is Mexico's Secretary of Health; and Graca Machel the founder of the Graca Machel Trust.
Source: WHO Maternal, Newborn and Child Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: child health [subject], children's health, children, young child, child Source Type: news