As part of the Global Strategy, the University has pledged to invest over US$ 85 million to improve capacity and to develop programmes that will reach over 15 million women and children in South-Central Asia and East Africa, and potentially save a million lives.
“As a leading University working on issues of women, newborn infants and children across the various geographies it serves, AKU has led the field through the generation of evidence for policy and innovations to reach the poor,” said Firoz Rasul, President, AKU.
“The new Global Strategy gives us a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the discourse regarding the health of women, children, and adolescents,” said Dr Zulfiqar Bhutta, Founding Director, Centre for Excellence in Women and Child Health, AKU.
On the occasion, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon explained the three main objectives of the Strategy, “First, survival, we want to end preventable deaths of women and children by 2030. Second, we aim to ensure every woman, child and adolescent thrives. Third, we commit to transforming the world in which women, children and adolescents live.”
He pointed out that the Global Strategy’s ambitious yet achievable targets are fully aligned with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by 193 member states of the United Nations’ General Assembly the day before.
The SDGs cover a wide array of targets and seek to address some of the world’s biggest challenges: ending extreme poverty, ensuring health and wellbeing, reducing inequalities and tackling climate change, among other issues.
Goal 3 – ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages – has targets for newborn deaths (10 deaths per 1,000 live births), stillbirths (10 per 1,000 live births) and mother deaths (70 deaths per 100,000 live births) to be achieved by all countries by 2030.
AKU was among the organisations that supported the Every Woman Every Child movement at its launch in September 2010 - during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit - by the UN Secretary-General. An unprecedented partnership, it mobilised international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children.
In 2015, the global community is renewing the Every Woman Every Child commitment and setting out a refreshed roadmap under the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health.
