WUNRN
UN News Centre
UN Forms Commission on
Use and Accountability of Resources for Women’s and Children’s Health
16 December 2010 – The United
Nations is establishing a high-level commission charged with developing an
accountability framework that will link resources committed to women and
children’s health with the results they are intended to achieve.
“Strengthening accountability is critical if we are to save the lives of more women and children,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on the establishment of the Commission. “We must ensure that partners deliver on their promises but, in turn, it is crucial that they know whether investments are leading to sustainable progress.”
The
new body – the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and
Children’s Health – will develop an accountability framework to help countries
monitor where resources go and how they are spent, and will provide the
evidence needed to show which programmes are most effective to save the lives
of women and children.
The
Commission will be co-chaired by the President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, and
the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. The Secretary-General of the UN
International Telecommunication Union, Hamadoun Touré, and the Director-General
of the UN World Health Organization (WHO),
Margaret Chan, will be the vice-chairs of the Commission, which will hold its
first meeting on 26 January next year and present its final report by May.
“Resources
come with an expectation of results,” Dr. Chan said. “Accountability is vital.
It means keeping promises and measuring results. To measure results, we need
much stronger systems for health information. The Commission will guide us in
all these areas.”
Its
establishment follows the adoption by stakeholders of the Global Strategy for
Women’s and Children’s Health at the Millennium Development Goals Summit in
The
Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health called for WHO to establish a
process to determine the most effective international institutional
arrangements for global reporting, oversight and accountability for women’s and
children’s health.
The
accountability framework proposed by the Commission will track results and
resource flows at global and country levels; identify a core set of indicators
and measurement needs for women’s and children’s health; propose steps to
improve health information and registration of vital events, including births
and deaths, in low-income countries; and explore opportunities for innovation
in information technology to improve access to reliable information on
resources and outcomes.
Mr.
Harper said the Commission “will help ensure that countries follow through on
the commitments they made at the G-8 Summit in Muskoka (