World Progress in Maternal and Child Health
24 MAY 2010 | WASHINGON DC
Kaiser Family Foundation Policy Forum: "World Progress in Maternal and Child Health, and the Future Role for the U.S."
Organizer: Kaiser Family Foundation
Event dates: 24 May 2010
Venue: Washington DC
24 May 2010 | Washington - The Kaiser Family Foundation organized a policy forum: "World Progress in Maternal and Child Health, and the Future Role for the U.S." The panelists, including PMNCH Director Dr. Flavia Bustreo discussed recent progress towards achieving meeting Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health and the significant challenges that remain.
The role of the new U.S. Global Health Initiative in helping to meet these goals was outlined, and the importance of monitoring progress was highlighted by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation article on child mortality estimates in The Lancet, published on the morning of the forum.
Kaiser Executive Vice President Diane Rowland moderated the panel, and other panel members were: Jennifer Klein, Senior Advisor on Global Women's Issues at the State Department; Christopher J.L. Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation - University of Washington; Jen Kates, Vice president and Director of Global Health Policy and HIV at Kaiser; and Ana Langer, President of EngenderHealth.
The policy forum was followed by two technical sessions organized by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and The Lancet on the new IHME worldwide estimates of maternal and child mortality published in the Lancet. The technical panel on child mortality was chaired by Mickey Chopra, Chief of Health, UNICEF, and the session on maternal mortality by Jen Kates at Kaiser.
The panelists welcomed the academic debate and advances on estimating maternal and child mortality ratios, but highlighted the importance of supporting countries to develop vital registration systems so that every mother and child can be counted. The need for more effective communication of heath data and the related policy implications was also emphasized, as were the important roles played by the media, civil society, academia, and international health and development agencies in the process.