Italians follow-up on STC's EVERYONE Campaign
6 OCTOBER 2010 | ROME - The City of Rome and representatives from the NGO Save the Children and national and international organizations have met one year after the launch of the NGO’s Everyone’ Campaign for a follow up which included participation from Italian ministers, the City of Rome, STC, PMNCH and the WHO.
The event was opened by the Mayor of Rome, Mr Gianni Alemanno. He underlined the support of the City of Rome to the campaign Everyone and the city’s desire to play an critical role in the campaign. Mr Alemanno referred to the UN MDGs Summit in New York, and to the Global Strategy on Women's and Children's Health, calling the Strategy a crucial milestone in the path towards the achievement of MDG 4 and 5 –to reduce child and maternal mortality. He said that the Everyone Campaign represents a concrete answer to the Global Call for commitments to women’s and children’s health.
The reference to the Global Strategy was reinforced by other Italian participants including Dr Cristina Piga on the behalf of Mr Gianni Letta, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers: “We know what we lack of and what we have to do to achieve MDGs 4 and 5,” said Dr Piga. “Now it is time to join our efforts towards this goal. Italy must play its role, must best define how it can effectively give a contribution to this challenge. We need coordination, we need a joint action.” The commitment of Italy was also reinforced by the interventions from representatives of Parliament and Government.
Participants
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and the WHO Department for Reproductive Health and Research were invited to attend the Meeting, along with other national and international participants including: representatives of the Italian Institutions, Minister Elisabetta Belloni Director of the General Directorate for Development Cooperation, Ms Emma Bonino Vice President of the Italian Senate, and Dr Cristina Piga. From the City of Rome, the Mayor Dr Gianni Alemanno, and Ms Isabella Rauti, Councilor and Member of the Office of the Presidency of the Lazio Region.
Among the first ladies invited to the Event: Ms Margarida Barroso, First Lady to the President of the European Commission, Ms Géri Benoit, Ambassador of Haiti in Italy, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations Agencies in Rome and Ms Cristiana Falcone Sorrell, Senior Advisor to the Chairman at the World Economic Forum and Principal Partnership Consultant at IAD.
Numerous representatives from the international agencies: for the Health sector, Dr Mario Merialdi, representative from WHO and PMNCH, Dr Felice Petraglia, for the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, and for food and agriculture sector, Dr David Nabarro, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Food Security & Nutrition, Dr Marcela Villarreal, Assistant Director-General for External Relations, FAO, Dr Paul Larsen, Director for External and NGOs Relations, World Food Program and Dr Paolo Ciocca, Secretary of the International Fund for Agriculture Development.
Moderators for Save the Children: Italy Valerio Neri and Francesco Aureli.
Presentations
Representatives for the food and agriculture sector, especially Dr Nabarro, underlined that it is impossible to address MDGs 4 and 5 from other MDGs, especially MDG 1: “The Eradication of poverty is indispensable to save the life of women and children and to improve their health status,” said Dr Nabarro. He pointed out that the poorest populations live in areas of the world where agriculture is the main economic resource and that developing and implementing appropriate policies will result in reduction of maternal and child mortality and morbidity.
The First Lady to the President of the European Commission, Ms Margarida Barroso, passionately reported her personal experience and expressed her personal commitment towards the million of children to be saved worldwide. Ms Benoit, reported the example of Haiti to show how coordination of political and economic commitments can make a difference.
Representing the World Economic Forum, Ms Falcone Sorrell underscored the necessity of creating an "ecosystem" where different stakeholders, including the private sector, can find a common language and can join their efforts not only to mobilize new resources, but also to better use the existing ones. She also stressed the importance of innovative financing mechanisms, in a moment in which the lack of resources represents one of the major obstacles.
Dr Mario Merialdi, Coordinator for the Reproductive Health and Research Department at the World Health Organization (WHO), described the outline of the Global Strategy and traced the process leading to the final draft of the document in which PMNCH played a crucial role to provide the platform to facilitate agreement among different stakeholders including: governments, international and non-governmental organization, the private sector, foundations, constituency groups and advocates. The result is a joint, world-wide action to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 through enhanced financing, strengthened policy and improved service delivery.
The audience was also introduced to the project: “Women Create Life’-- an advocacy and resource mobilization tool to help develop innovative financing to help achieve MDGs 4 and 5, developed by WHO, PMNCH and Italy.