Dear PMNCH members,

I hope this message finds you well and safe in these uncertain times.

September 2020 is an important landmark for us – it denotes 15 years since PMNCH was created on the side of the UN General Assembly. Back then, we were 100 organizations from three different partnerships creating a single common platform for action. Today, it is a pleasure to pay tribute to leaders from the Partnership for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, the Healthy Newborn Partnership, and the Child Survival Partnership for their vision and resolve. Today, PMNCH together represents 1,100 members in 192 countries.

Yet as we recall the past, we look firmly to the future. We have achieved much, but there is much yet to do, especially in this time of grave threats to our common progress. More than ever, we must stand together. For this reason, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new five year PMNCH Strategy, 2021-2025, to be unveiled at year’s Accountability Breakfast on Tuesday 29 Sept.

To mark the occasion, we are writing to you now with two requests:

1. Please register for this exciting event on 29 September, starting at 8AM EDT, co-hosted by PMNCH with Every Woman Every Child and the White Ribbon Alliance.
2. We have created a joint statement of support for you to express your commitment to our new Strategy and our PMNCH Call to Action on COVID-19. Please consider adding your name to mark your support – as individuals or as leaders of organizations. Everyone is encouraged to participate: the more signatures, the more power to launch our dedicated partner-led campaign behind this Call to Action.

This sign-on statement, ‘Protect the Progress: Rise, Refocus, Recover’,  is part of today’s launch of the 2020 Progress Report on the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030). The report charts a decade of progress through the UN Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child movement, starting from September 2010.

By signing this statement, we are committing to the seven asks in our PMNCH Call to Action, supporting the implementation of our new PMNCH Strategy:

1 Ensuring access to information, health services and life-saving supplies for women, children and adolescents;

2 Promoting sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality;

3 Guaranteeing quality, respectful and dignified health care;

4 Providing training, equal and fair pay and safe working conditions for health workers, notably midwives and nurses;

5 Ensuring social protection, including food and nutrition, for marginalized and vulnerable groups;

6 Improving access to safe and clean water, toilets and handwashing facilities;

7 Preventing violence against women, children and adolescents.

With your support, we will present the results of our sign-on statement on UHC Day, 12 December 2020. Trailblazers, including our Board Chair Helen Clark, Michelle Bachelet of OHCHR, Henrietta Fore of UNICEF, Jagan Chapagain of IFRC, Tedros GhebreyesusInger of WHO, Inger Ashing of Save the Children, and UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake have already pledged their support by signing the letter. Now it is our turn to use our voice. Please click on the  icon on this link to be directed to the section of the webpage, where you can read and add your signature to the open letter.

Please spread the word through your networks as far and wide as possible. Together we are visible and we are strong in our commitment to the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents everywhere.

Best regards,

Helga