PMNCH work-planning retreat, February 2022

More than 40 leaders from PMNCH working groups, committees and constituencies joined together for a two-day retreat, 1-2 February 2022, to shape PMNCH’s 2022-23 workplan. The highly participatory retreat benefitted from the recent PMNCH governance reform process: representatives from all PMNCH structures, including youth representatives, took part in this joint planning and dialogue process. The retreat will be followed by constituency consultations and presentation of the final plan to the PMNCH Executive Committee for approval on 22 February.

The first day of the meeting started with discussions around advocacy goals for 2022. Ann Starrs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Co-Chair of the PMNCH Strategic Advocacy Committee, familiarized the participants around the decisions from the PMNCH Board Meeting in December 2021, including flagship deliverables such as economic analyses, Digital Advocacy Hubs, the Global Leaders Network, and the Global Forum for Adolescents in September 2023.

PMNCH Executive Director Helga Fogstad, introduced the draft workplan, underlining that the 16 proposed deliverables are united by a shared focus on improving equity for women, children and adolescents through increased financing, policy and service delivery commitments. 

Retreat participants heard from leaders of the Partner Engagement in Countries Committee, the Knowledge & Evidence Working Group, and the Accountability Working Group, and the Governance, Ethics and Nominations Committee on their aims and priorities for 2022-23 before dividing into break-out sessions, where they reviewed the detailed content of the draft workplan for each function area of PMNCH. The outcomes of each discussion will inform the final draft of the PMNCH workplan deliverables. 

On day two, the retreat honed in on how best to deliver PMNCH goals in 2022-23, emphasizing constituency and partner needs for effective advocacy in countries, led by a presentation from Dr Luther-King Fasehun, who presented the results of an in-depth set of semi-structured key informant interviews with PMNCH members in countries. 

During the break-out sessions, participants reflected further on top priorities for 2022-23 in light of the country's research findings and finalized discussions on recommended deliverables. 

Background papers and resources from the work-planning retreat is available on the event webpage.