Advancing women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health and equity
Petrie-Flom Center Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights Alicia Ely Yamin is a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent.
From the article:
Stronger accountability is key.
In 2015 the UN secretary general launched the Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) global strategy to give new momentum to the urgent task of transforming the health of women, children, and adolescents by 2030.1 One of its recommendations was to convene an independent panel to regularly review progress on the global strategy’s targets and the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The EWEC independent accountability panel was established in 2016 and advocates for a shared understanding of accountability founded on human rights. The panel uses a monitor, review, remedy, and act framework that has evolved over a decade of experience.2 Our role is to review the results of progress reports on the health of women, children, and adolescents and to make recommendations to tackle failings
A new collection of articles published by The BMJ and BMJ Global Health (www.bmj.com/leaving-no-one-behind) offers insight into how countries are progressing towards their EWEC and SDG targets with a focus on equity. Two overarching issues that could prevent countries achieving their targets by 2030 are apparent.
Firstly, as noted in several articles in the collection, global progress is too slow and too uneven. Barriers to progress include violation of rights and structural disparities in society, such as entrenched gender and socioeconomic inequalities and failure of health services to reach those most in need, especially in countries afflicted by conflict.
Secondly, accountability mechanisms and culture are weak in many countries and organisations. They often fail, for example, to uncover and redress corruption, a proved cause of health inequity.3 To achieve the global strategy targets and promote equity in health and sustainable development, we contend that accountability urgently requires strengthening at all levels. [...]
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