Leaders say action targeting women, children and adolescents key to meeting health SDG

New York – Over the next twelve years, the world will face an enormous challenge to ensure health for women, children and adolescents while seeking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We therefore call on Heads of State and Government to put reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health at the core of efforts to accelerate the global response against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria and to reach  ambitious global health goals by 2030.

Based on successful strategies and experiences, we invite countries to attain our shared commitments by:

• Reducing inequities among populations and promoting health as a fundamental human right;
• Increasing investments in innovative approaches to achieve SDG 3, and its associated targets, that help to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for everyone at all ages;
• Creating and improving innovative financing mechanisms for health;
• Accelerating access to innovative health products, quality health services and adequate support for most vulnerable populations, particularly women, children and adolescents.
• Strengthening the coordination of the global health response and the collaboration between health stakeholders at global, regional and country level;
• Ensuring predictable and sustainable global and domestic funding to intensify the global response by aiming to meet a target of committing 0.7% of developed countries’ gross national income to official development assistance.

Meeting the challenge of achieving the SDGs and ensuring the health of women, children and adolescents is a crucial step towards bringing about healthy and robust economies, politically stable societies and resilient communities. The health of women, children and adolescents is critically important to virtually every area of human development and progress, and directly affects the success of the international community in accordance with global commitments.

H.E. Ms Michelle Bachelet                                                 H.E. Mr Celso Amorim

President of Chile                                                                 Chair of the Executive Board of Unitaid 

 Signed on the occasion of the High-level Breakfast held on 21 September 2017 during 72^nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York

• Joint statement – signed [PDF. 75 KB]