Board member Professor Miriam Were nominated to the Expert Review Group of the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health
Geneva, 30 September 2011 | The Alliance is delighted to announce the selection of its Board member Professor Miriam K Were to the Expert Review Group of the UN Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health (the Commission).
The Commission, which was established by WHO at the request of the United Nations Secretary-General to accelerate progress on the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) facilitate the establishment of a time-limited independent Expert Review Group (ERG) which would operate until 2015 - reporting regularly to the United Nations Secretary-General on the results and resources related to the Global Strategy and on progress in implementing the Commission’s recommendations.
"I'd like to congratulate Miriam on her nomination to the Expert Review Group. The Review Group will undoubtedly benefit from her in-depth knowledge and sincere commitment to maternal and child health", said Dr Mubashar Sheikh, Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance.
Professor Were has demonstrated through a lifetime of dedication and accomplishment her commitment and competence in the field of public health, and of maternal and child health in particular. Coming from a poor rural background, and having served in rural areas of her home country, Kenya, she is familiar with the challenging realities of front-line service delivery. For the past 40 years, Professor Were has united communities to develop and implement innovative solutions to daily health problems. She was accorded the "Hideyo Noguchi Africa" prize by Japan in 2008 for work on expansion of medical services for mothers and children. As a Board member of the Alliance she has shown tremendous dedication to the issues of health workforce development and maternal and child health, playing an instrumental role in forging better links between these.
As part of the ERG Professor Were will contribute to efforts to:
- assess the extent to which all stakeholders honour their commitments to the Global Strategy and the Commission; including the US$ 40 billion of commitments made in September 2010;
- review progress in implementation of the recommendations of the Commission;
- identify obstacles to implementing both the Global Strategy and the Commission’s recommendations;
- identify good practice, including in policy and service delivery, accountability arrangements and value-for-money approaches relating to the health of women and children;
- and make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the accountability framework developed by the Commission.
The Alliance extends its hearty congratulations to Professor Were for her outstanding work and her selection to the ERG .