Fourth edition of Acting on the Call summit held

Ministers of Health and their counter parts from 25 countries issued the Addis Declaration to End Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths

Acting on the Call summit’s fourth edition was recently held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia focussed on Overcoming Critical Barriers to Maternal and Child Survival. Ministers of Health and their counter parts from 25 countries issued the Addis Declaration to End Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths. The declaration pledged a renewed commitment to realising the goals of Acting on the Call to save 15-million children and 600 000 women from 2012 – 2020. “We will continue to hold ourselves accountable to these commitments,” the declaration states, “through monitoring progress, promoting cross-learning, sharing knowledge and collaborating to end preventable deaths.” The Ministries of Health of Ethiopia and India were co-hosts, with support from USAID, UNICEF, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Delegates collectively committed to evidence-based efforts to improve the quality of health services for women and children; to provide equitable access to health services (especially in hard-to-reach communities); to build resilient health services to protect people from the effects of natural disaster, conflict and displacement; to grow and diversify resources to finance health services and move toward universal health care; and to use data and research tools to build decision making through prioritizing resource deployment and optimizing its efficacy.

The delegates celebrated the worldwide progress in reducing maternal, newborn and child deaths while highlighting challenges. Since 2008, USAID-supported maternal and child survival work has helped save the lives of 4.6-million children and 200000 women in the 25 priority countries.

The summit gave delegates a platform to engage and discuss global and country-specific challenges. They highlighted best practices in a collective, global effort to save mothers and children and to give them an environment in which to thrive. Emergent themes included paths to sustainability, financial efficiency, evidence-based programming and rapid success from synergistic efforts.

The following countries were represented: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Switzerland, Tanzania, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Zambia.