The Safeguarding Health in Conflict coalition, an alliance of organizations advocating for the protection of health from violence, commends the United Nations for renewing its commitments to ending preventable maternal, child, and adolescent deaths through the creation of 2015 Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health.
In response to the Zero Draft emerging from the Global Strategy Working Papers and Every Woman Every Child and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health consultations, the coalition submitted three general recommendations to be considered by the UN during the finalization of the strategy. In short, the coalition recommends strengthening language on the need to protect health workers and services from violence to ensure the issue is recognized as an indispensable component of any strategy designed to accelerate progress in achieving maternal, child, and adolescent health goals.
The coalition’s recommendations for the 2015 Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health are:
- Articulate how attacks against health workers, services and infrastructure in fragile and conflict-affected states hinder the safe and reliable delivery of essential MNCH services.
- Emphasize the need for better systematic data collection and documentation on attacks against health, and on its impact on women’s, children’s, and adolescent’s health.
- Articulate support and call to strengthen existing institutions and compliance with resolutions designed to protect health workers from violence.