Aga Khan at Child Care Summit in Toronto 28-30 May 2014

[Admin]

Prime Minister Harper<http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/03/06 ... ealth>will host a Global Summit on maternal, newborn and child health in
Toronto.

Saving Every Woman Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach

Toronto, Ontario

28 April 2014

Canada is committed to helping reduce the number of women and children in developing countries that die from simple, preventable causes which can be addressed with proven, affordable and cost-effective solutions that most Canadians take for granted.

To this end, it is hosting Saving Every Woman Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach, an international Summit that will shape the future of Child and Maternal Health collaborations in Canada and around the world.

On April 28, 2014 at the Mount SinaiHospital in Toronto, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the Summit themes and key participants, unveiled the Summit logo and launched the official website.

The Saving Every Woman Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach Summit will bring together Canadian and international leaders, experts, civil society, businesses, academia, developed and developing countries, international organizations and global foundations to ensure that maternal, newborn and child health remains a core part of the global development agenda.

Key international participants will include:

Jakaya M. Kikwete, President of Tanzania;
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations;
Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;
Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization;
AnthonyLake, Executive Director of UNICEF; and,
His Highness the Aga Khan.

Summit Themes

The Summit will be divided into three themes, one for each day: Delivering Results for Mothers and Children, Doing More Together Globally and Real Action for Women’s and Children’s Health. The agenda will include high-level keynote speeches and a mix of plenary and thematic sessions. They will focus on specific maternal, newborn and child health issues that need further support and must be prioritized in the final push towards preventing maternal and child mortality. These include:

reducing newborn mortality;
improving accountability through strengthened civil registration and vital statistics systems;
saving lives through immunization;
scaling up nutrition as a foundation for healthy lives; and,
building new partnerships with the private sector to leverage innovation and financing.

The Summit is a significant opportunity to advance the goals and targets related to maternal, newborn and child health that should be included in the post-2015 global development framework and to ensure that focus and investments are maintained on these critical issues. There will be an emphasis on creating new partnerships with the private sector and embracing new technologies and innovative approaches to achieve these goals.

Summit Name

The official name of the Summit, Saving Every Woman Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach recognizes the fact that, with renewed global efforts, ending the preventable deaths of mothers and children is attainable in our lifetime. The name also builds on the United Nations’ Every Woman Every Child Initiative, a global movement launched following Canada’s Muskoka Initiative in 2010. The shift in messaging and brand identity is an important step to building global momentum, brand equity and concentrated focus on this important issue.

Summit Logo

The Summit logo, which was created by the Government of Canada, represents the timeless and universal image of a mother embracing her child.

Saving every woman every child

Summit Official Website

The official Summit website (www.canada.ca/MNCH) includes videos, photos, field stories and general information on maternal, newborn and child health as well as the Summit program. During the Summit, the website will include live-streaming and on-demand videos of many of the events. The website was developed by the Government of Canada and went public on April 28, 2014.

Canadian Civil Society Partners

The themes for the Summit were developed in consultation with key Canadian stakeholders active in global health along with international partners. The Government has been working closely with the Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, a network of Canadian NGOs, academic institutions and health professional associations working together to improve the lives of women and children in the world's poorest countries (www.can-mnch.ca). The Network has been putting its expertise to work on these issues in more than a thousand regions around the world.

Prime Minister Harper announced details on the Summit at a roundtable with members of the Network. The purpose of the roundtable was to discuss the important role played by Canadians in delivering results for women and children in developing countries. The Prime Minister and roundtable participants also discussed the importance of the upcoming Saving Every Woman, Every Child Summit, as an important and dynamic means towards reaffirming Canada's leadership in reigniting global efforts and building new momentum on improving women's and children's health, and demonstrating that continued commitment to saving the world's most vulnerable remains Canada's top development priority.

- See more at: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/04/28 ... iQEGU.dpuf

[Admin]

PM announces details of the upcoming Summit on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/05/23 ... ild-health





· Key international participants will include:

o

o Jakaya M. Kikwete, President of Tanzania;

o Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan;

o His Highness the Aga Khan;

o Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations;

o Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group;

o Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;

o Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization; and,

o AnthonyLake, Executive Director of UNICEF.




http://mnch.international.gc.ca/media-en.html#s7


http://mnch.international.gc.ca/media-en.html


http://mnch.international.gc.ca/about-a_propos-en.html


http://mnch.international.gc.ca/agenda- ... ur-en.html

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SHORT AGENDA: MATERNAL, NEWBORN AND CHILD HEALTH SUMMIT TORONTO, CANADA

May 28-30, 2014

Final Detailed Itinerary to Follow Shortly

Wednesday, May 28 – Delivering Results for Mothers and Children

15:30-15:35 Day 1 of Summit Opens
15:35-15:45 Opening Remarks - Live streamed
15:45-16:25 Opening Plenary: Results to date - Live streamed
16:25-16:45 Health Break
16:45-18:00 Plenary: Saving Lives Through Immunization
18:00-19:15 Plenary: Increasing Global Attention on Nutrition
19:15-19:25 Closing Remarks
19:30-21:00 Reception

Thursday, May 29 – Doing More Together Globally

9:00-9:10 Day 2 of Summit Opens
9:10-10:10 Keynote Speakers - Live streamed
10:10-10:30 Health Break
10:30-12:00 Plenary: Doing More Together Globally
12:15-12:45 Summit Keynote Speech - Live streamed
12:45-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Breakout Sessions
Session A: Innovative Financing and New Partners
Session B: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics: Accountability in MNCH
Session C: Newborn Health: Continuing to Bend the Curve on Child Mortality
Session D: Maternal Health: The Need to Accelerate Progress

15:30-15:50 Health Break
15:50-16:40 Plenary: Reflections on the Day
16:40-16:50 Day 2 Closing Remarks
17:00-18:30 Reception

Friday, May 30 – Real Action for Women and Children’s Health

9:30-9:40 Day 3 of Summit Opens - Live streamed
9:45-10:25 Speakers - Live streamed
10:25 -10:45 Health Break
10:45-11:55 Plenary: MNCH at the Heart of Post-2015 - Live streamed
11:55-12:00 Closing Remarks - Live streamed

List of Confirmed Summit Speakers

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
His Excellency Mr. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President, United Republic of Tanzania
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan
His Highness the Aga Khan, Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (TBC)
Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank
Ms. Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General, World Health Organization
Mr. Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF
Ms. Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, UNFPA
The Honourable Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
The Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister for International Development and La Francophonie
The Honourable John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Honourable Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women
The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health
The Honourable Candice Bergen, Minister of State (Social Development)
The Honourable Lynne Yelich, Minister of State (Foreign Affairs and Consular Services)
Lois Brown, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development
Dr. Alexandre Manguele, Minister of Health, Mozambique
Dr. Awa Marie Coll Seck, Minister of Health and Social Action, Sénégal
Dr. Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director General, Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration, World Health Organization
Prof. C.O. Onyebuchi Chukwu Minister of Health, Nigeria and Board Member of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health
Mr. Dave Toycen, President and Chief Executive Officer, World Vision Canada
Mr. David Morley, President and Chief Executive Officer, UNICEF Canada
Mr. Donald Lindsay, President and Chief Executive Officer, Teck Resources
Dr. Dorothy Shaw,Chair of the Canada Network for Maternal,Newborn&Child Health&VP, Medical Affairs,BCWomen’s Hospital&Health Care Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume, Minister of Public Health&Population, Haiti
Mr. Gary Cohen, Executive Vice-President, Becton Dickinson & Company
Ms. Hannah Godefa, Goodwill Ambassador, UNICEF Ethiopia (TBC)
Mr. Ira Magaziner, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman, Clinton Health Access Initiative
Dr. Jenn Brenner, Canadian Director, Healthy Child Uganda
Ms. Jill Sheffield, President, Women Deliver
Ms. Joanne Manrique, President & Editor in Chief, Centre for Global Health and Diplomacy
Mr. Joel Spicer, President, Micronutrient Initiative
Prof. Joy Lawn, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, LondonSchool of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr. Joy Phumaphi, Co-Chair of the independent Expert Review Group
Dr. Karlee Silver, Vice President of Targeted Challenges, Grand Challenges Canada
Ms. Kathy Spahn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Helen Keller International
Dr. Kebede Worku, State Minister of Health, Ethiopia
Mr. Khalil Z. Shariff, Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Foundation Canada (TBC)
Mrs. Laureen Harper
Ms. Mariam Claeson, Director of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Mr. Mark Dybul, Executive Director, Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Mr. Mark Lievonen, President, Sanofi Pasteur Limited
Mr. Michael Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
Mr. Ousmane Koné, Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Mali
Dr. Peter Singer, Chief Executive Officer, Grand Challenges Canada
Dr. Rajiv Shah, Administrator, USAID
Dr. Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet and Co-Chair of the Independent Expert Review Group (iERG)
Ms. Rosemary McCarney, Co-Chair Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health & President & Chief Exec Officer of Plan Canada
Dr. Seth Berkley, Chief Executive Officer, GAVI Alliance
Mr. Tim Evans, Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank
Mr. Tristan Rutter, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Populus Global Solutions Inc.
Mr. Vivek Kamath, Trustee, Being Human
Mr. Zahid Malek, State Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh (TBC)
Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Director of Research, Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children


Source: http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2014/05/23 ... o-canada[u][/u]

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Data on death key to saving lives: experts
The Canadian Press, 2014
By Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
Ottawa

For one million babies born every year on this planet, it's as if they were never here. That's how many newborns die on the day of their birth, along with millions more in their first month of life, all without ever having been formally documented.

That lack of vital birth and death registration in poor countries will be a major topic of discussion at this week's international meeting on improving the plight of children, newborns and mothers in the developing world. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is hosting the three-day conference in Toronto, after having made the issue his signature international aid priority in 2010.

Birth registration is a key to making progress on the issue, said Rosemary McCarney, the co-chair of the Canadian Network for Maternal Newborn and Child Health. "If you don't know who's being born, and you don't know how long they're living, and you don't know what they're dying of, how the heck can you do good health care policy in countries that are resource-poor?" McCarney said "You have to spend every dollar to make it count."

McCarney is helping to lead a Canadian network of 70 organizations that was formed after Harper announced the so-called Muskoka Initiative at the 2010 G8 summit, which Canada hosted in Ontario cottage country. International figures such as philanthropist Melinda Gates, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the Aga Khan and Queen Rania of Jordan are among those who will join dozens more in the world of international aid starting Wednesday in Toronto.

Harper will open the event Wednesday afternoon, and is widely expected to use the gathering to burnish Canada's global aid credentials, which have faced criticism since his government froze foreign aid spending in 2012 as a deficit-fighting measure. In 2010, Harper committed $2.8 billion over five years to the issue, but McCarney's network is calling on him to up the ante with a new commitment of $3.25 billion at this week's summit.

The government says it will have a major announcement this week. In a series of speeches and announcements over the past week, cabinet ministers have been trumpeting Canada's — and Harper's — leadership on the issue as they dole out the last of existing money. And they're acknowledging the work that still needs to be done.

"More than 100 developing countries around the world lack fully functioning civil registration and vital statistics systems," Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Sunday in announcing $20 million over four years to the Inter-American Development Bank's fund for civil registration. "An estimated one-third of the world's births and two-thirds of the world's deaths are not properly registered."

The proper registration of newborns is seen as one way to lower what experts say is the unacceptably high 2.9 million children who die within 28 days of being born each year. Another 2.6 million still births occur annually. The data was compiled in a series of papers drawing upon 55 experts in 18 countries that were published last week in the medical journal The Lancet.

Dr. Mickey Chopra, the chief of health for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said not being able to track births has meant an overall lack of funding to help young children. "If you don't do that, it doesn't get attention, it doesn't get resources to make it better," Chopra said in an interview.
"Donors are not putting money into newborn health, and as a result, the progress we're making on reducing newborn deaths is the slowest compared to maternal deaths or child deaths."

Dr. Peter Singer, the head of Grand Challenges Canada, a government funded, non-profit agency, said getting better vital statistics also has an added benefit: it increases accountability on where the money is spent to make it more effective. "That focus on accountability was absolutely pivotal in saving more lives of women and children," said Singer. "And that was the prime minister's and Canada's leadership with the original Muskoka Initiative."

Harper and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete were appointed co-chairs of the UN commission on accountability for women's and children's health in the fall of 2010 following the G8. A discussion that ties together accountability and vital statistics is to take place Thursday during the Toronto conference.

Source: http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-story ... s-experts/

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Summary of the Health Summit
From the PM's Office

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGi-WXnt2Ps

[kassambhai]

Thursday, May 29 – Doing More Together Globally
Keynote Speeches – Canadian Room

9:10-9:15 - Welcoming remarks by the Honourable Christian Paradis, Canada’s Minister of International Development and La Francophonie

9:15-9:30 - Remarks by Ms. Hannah Godefa, Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Ethiopia

9:30-9:40 - Remarks by His Highness the Aga Khan

9:40-9:50 - Remarks by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah
9:50-10:10 - Remarks by His Excellency Jakaya M. Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania

Detailed schedule see: http://mnch.international.gc.ca/agenda- ... ur-en.html

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Health Summit Opens:

http://www.chch.com/maternal-health-summit-opens

[Admin]

2015-05-28: Photo - Toronto, Canada - Dinner at the #MNCH with @LaureenHarper, His Highness the Aga Khan, & Tanzanian President @jmkikwete.

[Admin]

Source: othmanmichuzi.blogspot.ca/2014/05/president-kikwete-meets-canadian-prime.html

[Admin]

ctvnews.ca/politics/aga-khan-says-maternal-care-should-focus-on-those-who-are-hardest-to-reach-1.1843669



The Aga Khan speaks during a maternal health summit in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2014.



Aga Khan says maternal care should focus on 'those who are hardest to reach'



Andrea Janus, CTVNews.ca

@AndreaJanus

Published Thursday, May 29, 2014 11:01AM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, May 29, 2014 1:51PM EDT

Improving maternal, newborn and child health should be "one of the highest priorities on the global development agenda," the Aga Khan said in his keynote address at a summit hosted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Thursday marked day two of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit being held at a downtown Toronto hotel.

The morning began with keynote speakers by leaders in the maternal and child health field: Queen Rania of Jordan, the Aga Khan as well as President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, where there's a major push to reduce maternal and child mortality rates.
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Photos
The Aga Khan

The Aga Khan speaks during a maternal health summit in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2014.
Melinda Gates speaks at maternal health summit

Melinda Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, delivers a speech at the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2014.
Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, right, and Jakaya M. Kikwete, left, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, speak with each other during a photo opportunity as they attend the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit in Toronto on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The Aga Khan, whose development foundation runs a variety of health care programs in developing countries, told a rapt audience that he can think of "no other field in which a well-directed effort can make as great or as rapid an impact."

The summit is a continuation of an effort Harper launched in 2010, at the close of the G8 summit he hosted in Muskoka. At the time, he launched the Muskoka Initiative with $1.1 billion in new funding over five years, in addition to maintaining existing funding of $1.75 billion over the same period, for maternal, newborn and child health initiatives.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade says 80 per cent of that funding has been disbursed, and a further funding commitment is expected to be announced before the close of the summit on Friday.

Meanwhile, stakeholders are participating in plenary sessions on a variety of topics, from nutrition and vaccinations to finding innovative funding partnerships, all of which are closed to the media.

In his keynote address, the Aga Khan said he has "enormous respect" for the Harper government's "leadership role" on the issue of maternal and child health. The announcement of the Muskoka Initiative led to "important new efforts" of his Aga Khan Development Network, he said, which has saved lives across the developing world.

Community-based networks of health centres with trained health workers and nurse-midwives, partly funded by the Canadian government, "now serve some two-and-a-half million people in 15 countries, with 180 health centres both in urban and rural areas, often in high-conflict zones and embracing some of the world's poorest and most remote populations," the Aga Khan said.

He made several recommendations for addressing maternal and child health, including making long-term commitments, designing community-oriented programs and focusing on the "broad spectrum" of health care.

Efforts should focus "on reaching those who are hardest to reach" he said, and should be "comprehensive, working across the broad spectrum of social development.

As Harper did on Wednesday, the Aga Khan acknowledged that the Millennium Development Goals aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality, set and agreed by 189 countries in 2000, will not be met.

"The truth is that our efforts have been insufficient, and uneven," he said.

The Millennium Declaration included eight goals with a deadline of 2015. The so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) included reducing mortality rates of children under five by two-thirds, and reducing maternal mortality rates by three-quarters.

But in progress reports issued in 2012 and 2013, the WHO warns that significant gains have been made in both areas, but the MDGs have not been met.

The number of women who died in 2013 due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth was 289,000, down from 523,000 in 1990, or a reduction of 45 per cent, less than what is called for in the MDG.

Meanwhile, child mortality rates have been cut nearly in half since 1990, from 12.6 million then to 6.6 million in 2012, but that is also less than called for in the MDG.

In her keynote speech at the summit, Queen Rania noted that every year, 2.5 million newborns die, another 2.6 babies are stillborn, and a woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth every 90 seconds.

"These figures are more than a source of discontent," she said. "They are an outrage, an injustice and they have no place in our common humanity."

She detailed corrective four steps, including a call for skilled health workers to be in attendance at birth, and for health care workers to visit newborns at home within a few days of their birth.

She also said the international community must intervene with health programs in war-torn countries, where women give birth in grossly inappropriate settings, often just with the help of a friend or family member.

She also called for investment in girls' education, noting that a child born to a literate mother is 50 per cent more likely to survive past age five than a child of a mother who has not attended school.

Girls, she said, "are at the heart of development progress," and must be offered an education no matter where in the world they live.

"We must find them," she said. "We must give them tools to help them fulfill their potential and change mindsets. If we don't put girls and women at the heart of the post-2015 agenda, we will be having this same conversation 15 or 20 years from now on our way to Muskoka Number Nine."

On Wednesday, Harper called on the international community to renew its commitments to the MDG targets because, "It's the right thing to do, it's essential to be done, and they are very doable, and we can measure that we are doing them."

[Admin]

There are several sources for this speech:

1) akdn.org/Content/1273

2) allafrica.com/stories/201406021885.html?viewall=1

3) SOURCE Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

4) PR Newswire (New York)


Keynote remarks made at the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Summit in Toronto.

29 May 2014

Thank you Ms Brown for that kind introduction.

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Prime Minister Harper,
President Kikwete,
Your Majesty,
Your Excellencies,
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:

Like you, I am here today because of my conviction that improving maternal, neonatal and child health should be one of the highest priorities on the global development agenda. I can think of no other field in which a well-directed effort can make as great or as rapid an impact.

I am here, as well, because of my enormous respect for the leadership of the Government of Canada in addressing this challenge. And I am here too, because of the strong sense of partnership which our Aga Khan Development Network has long experienced, working with Canada in this critical field.

Leadership and partnership – those are words that come quickly to mind as I salute our hosts today and as I greet these distinguished leaders and partners in this audience.

Mr Prime Minister – I recall how our partnerships were strengthened four years ago when you launched the Muskoka Initiative. It led to an important new effort in which our Network has been deeply involved in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Mali.

In all of these efforts, we’ve built on our strong history of work in this field. It was 90 years ago that my late grandfather founded the Kharadhar Maternity Home in Karachi. In that same city, for the last thirty years, the Aga Khan University has worked on the cutting edge of research and education in this field – including its new specialised degree in midwifery.

One of our Aga Khan University scholars helped fashion the new series of reports on this topic that was released last week – an effort that involved more than 54 experts from 28 institutions in 17 countries. The reports tell us that right intensified steps can save the lives of an additional 3 million mothers and children annually.

To that end, our Development Network has also focused on building durable, resilient healthcare systems. One example is the not-for-profit health system by the Aga Khan Health Service in Northern Pakistan – a community-based network of facilities and health workers, including a growing number of nurse-midwives.

We have extended these approaches to other countries, including a remarkable partnership in Tanzania funded by the Canadian government and implementing in close partnership with the Tanzanian government.

Such AKDN activity now serves some two-and-a-half million people in 15 countries, with 180 health centres both in urban and rural areas, often in high-conflict zones, and embracing some of the world’s poorest and most remote populations.

Last year alone, these facilities served nearly 5 million visitors, inpatients and outpatients, with more than 40,000 newborn deliveries.

So our experience has been considerable. But what have we learned from it? Let me share a quick overview.

First, I would underline that our approaches have to be long-term. Sporadic interventions produce sporadic results, and each new burst of attention and activity must then start over again. The key to sustained progress is the creation of sustainable systems.

Second, our approaches should be community-oriented. Outside assistance is vital, but sustainable success will depend on a strong sense of local “ownership”.

The third point I would make is that our approaches should support the broad spectrum of health care. Focusing too narrowly on high-impact primary care has not worked well – improved secondary and tertiary care is also absolutely essential.

Our approaches should encourage new financial models. Donor funding will be critical, but we cannot sustain programmes that depend on continuing bursts of outside money. Let me underscore for example, the potential of local “savings groups” and micro-insurance programmes, as well as the underutilised potential for debt-financing. Also – and I think this is very, very important indeed – we have watched for many years as many developing countries, and their economies of course, have created new financial wherewithal among their people. These growing private resources can and I think should, help social progress, motivated by a developing social consciousness and by government policies that encourage tax-privileged donations to such causes.

Our approaches should also focus on reaching those who are hardest to reach. And here, new telecommunications technologies can make an enormous impact. One example has been the high-speed broadband link provided by Roshan Telecommunications, one of our Network’s companies, between our facilities in Karachi and several localities in Afghanistan and in Tajikistan. This e-medicine link can carry high-quality radiological images and lab results. It can facilitate consultations among patients, doctors and specialists at various centres. And it can contribute enormously to the effective teaching of health professionals in remote areas.

Our approaches should be comprehensive, working across the broad spectrum of social development. The problems we face have multiple causes, and single-minded, “vertical” interventions often fall short. The challenges are multi-sectoral, and they will require the effective coordination of multiple inputs. Creative collaboration must be our watchword. This is one reason for the growing importance of public-private partnerships.

These then are the points I would emphasise in looking back at our experience. I hope they might be helpful as we now move into the future, and to the renewal and re-expression of the Post Millennium Development Goals.

As we undertake the new planning process, the opportunity to exchange ideas at meetings of this sort can be enormously helpful. And potential partners must be able to talk well together if they are going to work well together.

I would hope such occasions will be characterised by candid exchange, including an acknowledgment of where we have fallen short and how we can do better. The truth is that our efforts have been insufficient and uneven. We have not met the Post Millennium Development Goals.

At the same time, we must avoid the risk of frustration that sometimes accompanies a moment of reassessment. Our challenge – as always – is a balance [between] honest realism with hopeful optimism.

And surely there are reasons to be optimistic.

In no other development field is the potential leverage for progress greater than in the field of maternal and newborn health.

I have spoken today about some of the approaches that have been part of our past work. But I thought I might close by talking about some of the results. My example comes from Afghanistan – a heartening example from a challenging environment.

The rural province of Afghan Badakhshan once had minimal infrastructure and few health-related resources. Less than a decade ago it had the highest maternity mortality ratio ever documented.

It was about that time that the Afghan government, supported by international donors, contracted with the Aga Khan Health Service to create a single non-governmental health organisation in each district and in each province. Today, the Badakhshan system alone includes nearly 400 health workers, 35 health centres, two hospitals, serving over 400,000 people. Its community midwifery school has graduated over 100 young women.

The impact has been striking. In Badakhshan in 2005, six percent of mothers died in childbirth – that is 6,000 for every 100,000 births. Just eight years later, that number was down twenty-fold – for every 100,000 live births, death has gone from 6,000 down to 300.

Meanwhile, infant mortality in Badakhshan has fallen by three quarters, from over 20 percent to less than 6 percent.

For most of the world, science has completely transformed the way life begins, and the risks associated with childbirth. But enormous gaps still exist. These gaps are not the result of fate – they are not inevitable. They can be changed, and changed dramatically.

When government and private institutions coordinate effectively in challenging a major public problem, as this example demonstrates, we can achieve substantial, genuine, quantifiable progress – and fairly rapidly.

This is the story we need to remember, and this is the sort of action we need to take as leaders and as partners in addressing one of the world’s most critical challenges.

Thank you.

[Admin]

Aga Khan Urges Innovative Approaches to Maternal and Child Care, Praises Canada’s Leadership

Please also see: Speech

Toronto, 29 May 2014 — His Highness the Aga Khan today praised Canada’s global leadership in efforts to improve maternal, neonatal and child health and stressed the importance of innovative and community-based approaches in meeting the challenge which he described as “one of the highest priorities on the global development agenda.”

The Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and founder of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) made the remarks in a speech at the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Summit in Toronto, Canada – a three-day high level gathering of heads of state and top health officials, organised by Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper.

“Leadership and partnership – those are words that come quickly to mind as I salute our hosts today – and as I greet the distinguished leaders and partners in this audience,” said the Aga Khan. “I am here, as well, because of my enormous respect for the leadership of the Government of Canada in addressing this challenge,” he added.

The Summit, “Saving Every Mother, Saving Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach”, brings together a number of partners in the global fight to address maternal, newborn and child health in developing countries. It follows the June 2010 G8 summit (held in Muskoka, Ontario), when Canada led G8 and non-G8 countries to commit CAD $7.3B (for 2010 to 2015) to MNCH.

The “Muskoka Initiative” aims to accelerate progress towards the achievement of two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed to in 2000: MDG 4 (reduce child mortality by two-thirds from 1990 to 2015) and MDG 5 (reduce maternal mortality by three quarters from 1990 to 2015).

In his address to the Summit, the Aga Khan said that in order to be effective, the approaches to health care should be long-term, community-oriented and use innovative financial models that make health care provision sustainable. He also underlined the need to focus on the broad spectrum of health care, not only high-impact primary, but also secondary and tertiary care and to look at health care within the context of a broader development agenda.

He emphasised the need to reach those who are hardest to reach by using new telecommunications tools in transmitting diagnostic information such as high quality radiological images and lab results.

The Aga Khan cited the AKDN’s involvement in the remote Badakhshan region of Afghanistan where the network has built up, virtually from scratch, a system that today includes nearly 400 health workers, 35 health centres and two hospitals, serving over 400,000 people. Its community midwifery school has graduated over 100 young women. He noted that the effort has greatly reduced infant mortality and child-birth related deaths.

While mentioning considerable progress in the maternal and child care area, the Aga Khan also cautioned that efforts to improve maternal and neonatal care were often uneven and that much more needed to be done.

“For most of the world, science has completely transformed the way life begins – and the risks associated with childbirth. But enormous gaps still exist. These gaps are not the result of fate – they are not inevitable. They can be changed – and changed dramatically,” he said.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has been engaged in MNCH for nearly a century. The Kharadar maternity home in Karachi, for example, was established in 1924. Today, the Network’s MNCH activities span 12 countries in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan), South Asia (Pakistan, India), Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, and Mali) and the Middle East (Syria, Egypt).

Canada has supported AKDN’s MNCH activity in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Mali. In Afghanistan, Canada has funded programmes for the construction of the new Bamyan Provincial Hospital, as well as the training of health professionals and the implementation of community health programmes. In Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Tanzania, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, it has helped strengthen AKDN’s health system by improving service delivery, training health professionals, and delivering community-based health promotion and prevention campaigns.



For more information:

Jennifer Pepall
Aga Khan Foundation Canada
The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat
199 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Canada, K1N 1K6 Phone: (613) 237-2532
Fax: (613) 567-2532
Toll free number: 1-800-267-2532
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.akfc.ca

[Admin]

Video: Aga Khan says improving mother and child health should be one of the highest priorities

http://www.vancouverdesi.com/news/nridi ... an/755363/


ALMAS MEHERALLY
VANCOUVER DESI

Improving maternal, neonatal and child health should be one of the “highest priorities on the global development agenda,” according to His Highness, the Aga Khan.

In his keynote address at the Saving Every Woman Every Child summit organized by prime minister Stephen Harper in Toronto on Thursday, he said he “can think of no other field in which a well-directed effort can make as great or as rapid an impact.”

The Aga Khan’s address came on the second day of the summit, which was organized to renew interest in the so-called Muskoka initiative, launched by Harper at the G8 summit in 2010. Melinda Gates and the Queen of Jordan also attended.

The program has become the federal government’s central development project, with an extra $1 billion in Canadian funding committed to help reduce illness and death among mothers, newborns and other children by 2015 and billions from other countries, too.

The Aga Khan highlighted the history of his foundation – the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) – working in the field of maternal and child health.

“For the last 30 years, the Aga Khan University has worked on the cutting edge of research and education in this field,” he said. “AKU reports that intensified steps can save the lives of an additional three million mothers and children annually. To that end AKDN has also focused on building durable, resilient healthcare systems.”

The AKDN healthcare facilities serve 2.5 million people in 150 countries, with 180 health centres in both urban and rural communities, often in high-conflict zones embracing some of the world’s poorest and most remote populations.

Last year, these facilities served nearly 5 million inpatient and outpatient visitors, with more than 40,000 new-born deliveries.

The key to sustained progress is the creation of sustainable systems, said the Aga Khan, adding that sustainable success will depend on a strong sense of local ownership.

He also said approaches should support the broad spectrum of health care, should encourage new financial models such as local savings groups, micro-insurance and potential debt-financing.

“Our approaches should also focus on reaching those who are hardest to reach,” he added. “Creative collaboration must be our watchword.”

According to the spiritual leader, no other development field has the potential leverage for progress greater than in maternal and newborn health.

“Our challenge – as always – is to balance honest realism with hopeful optimism,” the Aga Khan said.

-with a file from Tom Blackwell, Postmedia News

[Admin]

https://twitter.com/MedWIA/status/47200 ... 53/photo/1

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Interview with CEO of the AKDN post conference on maternal and child health:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WoJKIX6NVs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WoJKIX ... vutJof1FDZ

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Transcript of speech made by MHI

Address by His Highness the Aga Khan: Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Summit

May 29, 2014 – Toronto, Canada

Thank you, Ms. Brown, for that kind introduction.

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Prime Minister Harper, President Kikwete, Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Like you, I am here today because of my conviction that improving maternal, neonatal and child health should be one of the highest priorities on the global development agenda. I can think of no other field in which a well-directed effort can make as great or as rapid an impact.

I am here, as well, because of my enormous respect for the leadership role of the Government of Canada in addressing this challenge. And I am here, too, because of the strong sense of partnership which our Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) has long experienced - working with Canada in this critical field.

Leadership and partnership - those are words that come quickly to mind as I salute our hosts today - and as I greet the distinguished leaders and partners in this audience.

Mr. Prime Minister, I recall how our partnerships were strengthened four years ago when you launched the Muskoka Initiative. It led to important new efforts in which our Network has been deeply involved - in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Mali.

In all of these efforts, we have built on our long history of work in this field. It was 90 years ago that my late grandfather founded the Kharadhar Maternity Home in Karachi. In that same city, for the last 30 years, the Aga Khan University has worked on the cutting edge of research and education in this field - including its new specialized degree in midwifery.

One of our Aga Khan University scholars helped fashion the new series of reports on this topic that was released last week - an effort that involved more than 54 experts from 28 institutions in 17 countries. The reports tell us that the right intensified steps can save the lives of an additional 3 million mothers and children annually.

To that end, our Development Network has also focused on building durable, resilient health-care systems. One example is the not-for-profit health system developed by the Aga Khan Health Service in Northern Pakistan - a community-based network of facilities and health workers, including a growing number of nurse-midwives.

We have extended these approaches to other countries, including a remarkable partnership in Tanzania - funded by the Canadian government and implemented in close partnership with the Tanzanian government.

Altogether, such AKDN activities now serve some two and a half million people in 15 countries, with 180 health centres both in urban and rural areas, often in high-conflict zones, and embracing some of the world’s poorest and most remote populations.

Last year alone, these facilities served nearly 5 million visitors, inpatient and outpatient, with more than 40,000 newborn deliveries.

So our experience has been considerable. What have we learned from it? Let me share a quick overview.

First, our approaches should be long-term. Sporadic interventions produce sporadic results - and each new burst of attention and activity must then start over again. The key to sustained progress is the creation of sustainable systems. Our approaches should be community-oriented. Outside assistance is vital - but sustainable success will depend on a strong sense of local “ownership”.

Our approaches should support the broad spectrum of health care. Focusing too narrowly on high-impact primary care has not worked well – improved secondary and tertiary care is also essential.

Our approaches should encourage new financial models - donor funding will be critical, but we cannot sustain programs that depend on continuing bursts of outside money. Let me underscore, for example, the potential of local “savings groups” and micro-insurance programs, as well as the underutilized potential for debt-financing. Also, we have watched for many years as many developing economies have created new financial wherewithal among their people. These growing private resources can help social progress, motivated by a developing social consciousness and by government policies that encourage tax-privileged donations to such causes.

Our approaches should also focus on reaching those who are hardest to reach. And here, new telecommunications technologies can make an enormous impact. One example has been the high-speed broadband link provided by Roshan Telecommunications, one of our network’s companies, between our facilities in Karachi - and several localities in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. This e-medicine link can carry high-quality radiological images and lab results. It can facilitate consultations among patients, doctors and specialists at various centres. And it can contribute enormously to the effective teaching of health professionals in remote areas.

Our approaches should be comprehensive, working across the broad spectrum of social development. The problems we face have multiple causes, and single-minded, “vertical” interventions often fall short. The challenges are multi-sectoral - and they will require the effective coordination of multiple inputs. Creative collaboration must be our watchword. This is one reason for the growing importance of public-private partnerships.

These then are points I would emphasize in looking back at our experience. I hope they might be helpful as we now move into the future - and to the renewal and re-expression of the Post Millennium Development Goals.

As we undertake that planning process, the opportunity to exchange ideas at meetings of this sort can be enormously helpful. Partners - and potential partners - must be able to talk well together if they are going to work well together.

I would hope such occasions will be characterized by candid exchange - including an acknowledgment of where we have fallen short - and how we can do better. The truth is that our efforts have been insufficient - and uneven. We have not met the Post-Millennium Development Goals.

At the same time, we must avoid the risk of frustration that sometimes accompanies a moment of reassessment. Our challenge - as always - is to balance honest realism with hopeful optimism.

And surely there are sound reasons to be hopeful.

In no other development field is the potential leverage for progress greater than in the field of Maternal and Newborn Health.

I have spoken today about some of the approaches that have been part of our past work. But I thought I might close by talking about some of the results. My example comes from Afghanistan – a heartening example from a challenging environment.

The rural province of Afghan Badakhshan once had minimal infrastructure and few health-related resources. Less than a decade ago it had the highest maternal mortality ratio ever documented.

It was about that time that the Afghan government, supported by international donors, contracted with the Aga Khan Health Service to create a single non-governmental health organization in each district or province. Today, the Badakhshan system alone includes nearly 400 health workers, 35 health centres and two hospitals, serving over 400,000 people. Its community midwifery school has graduated over 100 young women.

The impact has been striking. In Badakhshan - in 2005 - six percent of mothers died in childbirth, 6,000 for every 100,000 live births. Just eight years later, that number was down twenty-fold - for every 100,000 live births it has gone from 6000 down to 300.

Meanwhile, infant mortality in Badakhshan has fallen by three quarters, from over 20 percent to less than 6 percent.

For most of the world, science has completely transformed the way life begins – and the risks associated with childbirth. But enormous gaps still exist. These gaps are not the result of fate - they are not inevitable. They can be changed - and changed dramatically.

When government and private institutions coordinate effectively in challenging a major public problem, as this example demonstrates, we can achieve substantial, genuine, quantifiable progress - and fairly rapidly.

This is the sort of story we need to remember - and this is the sort of action we need to take - as leaders and as partners in addressing one of the world’s most critical challenges.

Thank you.

Source: http://www.international.gc.ca/media/de ... x?lang=eng

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A Renewed Call for Child and Maternal Health
June 25, 2014 - 9:59am
By Sabrina Natasha Premji and Afzal Habib

At the Saving Every Woman, Every Child summit held in Toronto, Canada last month, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank Group asserted, “We stand today on a critical threshold for global health and development. While we can absolutely point to progress, we know that it has been uneven. Too many women and children are still dying because they lack access to quality health care...”

This view was echoed by the summit’s high profile delegates which included United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, World Health Organization President Dr. Margaret Chan, His Highness the Aga Khan, and Melinda Gates.

The event’s host, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announced a $3.5 billion commitment by the Canadian government to support maternal and child health initiatives globally from 2015-2020, building off the previous $2.8 billion commitment announced at the Muskoka G8 summit in 2010. The funds will be primarily directed towards immunization and nutrition initiatives, as well as building effective vital statistics and civil registries.

But missing from the summit were discussions on reproductive health and family planning, including abortion services, a fact that critics are quick to attribute to the current Canadian Government’s conservative leanings. This is particularly relevant given that in the summit’s co-host country of Tanzania, the second leading cause of maternal death is unsafe abortions.

The noticeable gap between what is being funded and the challenges on the ground prompts us to ask, who really owns the maternal, newborn, and child health agenda? By ownership, we mean who sets the strategic priorities and who is held accountable if results are not seen?

Ownership generally follows the money, and since the Canadian government is the lead funder, it is calling the shots. They are able to determine the key priorities, as well as implement partners and timelines within recipient countries.

Not to be misunderstood, the Canadian government doubling-down on issues of maternal and child health is admirable, particularly when the international community is at the brink of defining its post-2015 development agenda. However, if the strategic planning process is not equally shared by governments of low-income countries, with buy-in and commitments from these local governments to allocate their own resources to the cause, Mr. Harper’s largesse quickly spirals from admirable to problematic.

Indeed, when the pipeline of official development assistance eventually runs dry, it is the local governments of lower-income countries that will be in charge of financing health interventions to sustain the gains made. It is the local governments who must, therefore, focus on establishing the appropriate operational and financial infrastructure now to be able to support initiatives in the long-run. It is the local governments that must champion the maternal and child health agenda in their respective regions.

In response to Canada’s decision to exclude reproductive health in its top three maternal and child health priority items, His Excellency President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania said, “We don’t expect Canada to fund everything related to saving the lives of women and children.”
Instead of noting the shortfall being covered by his government’s own resources or brainstorming other innovative financing mechanisms, President Kikwete continued, "...We have many partners. So I think if Canada chooses not to fund contraceptives, we will not take offence for that.”

His Highness the Aga Khan had a different view: “We cannot sustain programs that depend on continuing bursts of outside money. Sustainable success will depend on a strong sense of local ownership.”

We certainly hope that local governments were listening. The Tanzanian government, for example, has only allocated 9 percent of its total budget to health care, short of the 15 percent target agreed upon in the WHO’s 2001 Abuja Declaration, of which a meager 6.3 percent goes to maternal and child health programs.

Realistically, what is the incentive for governments like Tanzania to champion solutions to their health challenges when their situation is perfectly adept to receiving funding externally? Often, as countries develop economically and see marginal improvements on health indicators, they can become less attractive to receive donor funding which favors the poorest nations, putting greater pressure on their ill-equipped national budgets.

“Missing from the policy discussion is financing and particularly, domestic financing,” says Dr. Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health and Associate Director of Programs at UNICEF. “We’ve always assumed it would come from domestic taxation, but that infrastructure doesn’t exist today.”

Dr. Chopra hypothesizes that the impetus for local ownership and long-term sustainability will come from driving demand at the community level: “Historical experience suggests that as countries become wealthier and more developed, there generally tends to be a natural progression to spend more or care more about health. We can get to a win-win where we have leaders re-elected for improving service provision.”

The issue with trusting local demand to sustain the momentum of maternal and child health, as Dr. Chopra says, is that “governments don’t generally stand on saying we’ll reduce mortality. They typically run on we’ll provide more services.”

New maternity clinics with untrained staff and frequent drug stock-shortages are hardly an effective approach to reducing maternal and child deaths.

The World Bank’s Dr. Jim Yong Kim is more optimistic. There are now opportunities to leverage various forms of financing in tandem, including grant funding, domestic resources, low-interest loans, and public-private partnerships: “We can come up with a vision for how to fund these processes that will really stretch people’s imaginations,” he said.

This innovative blend of bridge financing can yield remarkable long-term results. In the Republic of Congo, for example, the government recently contributed $100 million from its own domestic budget, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the total cost to scale-up maternal and child health services nation-wide.

The Republic of Congo, however, represents a single success story, with the vast majority of developing nations still heavily dependent on foreign assistance to meet their significant health challenges.

The Saving Every Woman, Every Child summit represents one of a multitude of global conversations to take place over the coming months on tackling maternal and child health issues in a post-2015 development era. Let us ensure that local governments are setting the priorities, driving the agenda based on their needs, and making smart investments in the architecture of their health systems to support long-term impact.

If we fail to do so, we may find ourselves 20 years from now, holding the same summits and discussing the same issues, while the lives of millions of mothers and children hang in the balance.

*****

Sabrina Natasha Premji and Afzal Habib are co-founders of Kidogo Early Years, a social enterprise providing high-quality, affordable early childhood care and education in East Africa’s urban slums.

Source: http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2014/06 ... nal-health