Message of support by President Cyril Ramaphosa for the 'Lives in the Balance' high-level dialogue series on investing in women, children and adolescents on the margins of the 77th World Health Assembly

Dear Friends,

Last year, on the margins of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, we launched the Global Leaders Network for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, with the support of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH).

This initiative was born out of a conversation I had with the Board Chair of the PMNCH, Honourable Helen Clark, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand. We agreed that there is a need for bold leadership at the highest political level to address the challenges in progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.

I take this opportunity to thank H.E. Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, and H.E. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, for joining me in this network. I look forward to many other peers joining this initiative.

I am pleased to convey this message of support, as you contemplate a proposed Resolution on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health on the margins of the 77th World Health Assembly. This event is a necessary and timely meeting to re-affirm our commitments and take substantive steps to ensure that no woman dies giving birth, and that newborns and adolescents not only survive, but thrive to reach their full potential.

One of the reasons we elevated this issue to the Heads of State level, is our recognition of the need for a multisectoral response to the challenges of morbidity and mortality of women, children and adolescents. We know that successful approaches include:

1. high-quality essential health and nutrition services;
2. investing in the training and retention of skilled health workforce;
3. stronger primary healthcare delivery;
4. prioritising issues of access, which include navigable roads and transport to reach all communities and for all community members to be able to reach facilities;
5. universal access to reproductive and sexual health services;
6. access to sexual and reproductive health commodities (including through localised manufacturing) and more investments in climate-resilient and sustainable health systems. 

Investing in women, newborns, children and adolescents is a moral, a social and an economic imperative. Investing $5 per person per year in health systems and high-impact health interventions for women's and children's health in 74 highburden countries, can yield economic and social benefits that are nine times greater than that amount by 2035. Similarly, every dollar invested in selected adolescent health interventions, yields a 10-fold return in health, social and economic benefits.

I strongly encourage the inclusion of leaders in the sectors of finance, public works and infrastructure, manufacturing, gender equality, adolescent health, business and civil society, in these conversations. The final push towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will need all of society’s best efforts, guided by evidence and a robust forecasting framework.

As part of the Global Leaders Network support, we have identified 11 of the most affected countries in the world to support an accelerated programme of action towards the SDG targets of maternal and neonatal mortality. These are Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Bangladesh and Liberia. These countries also have a high burden of adolescent mortality, driven by a myriad of socioeconomic issues. Although adolescent mortality is not an SDG target, we have decided to give this indicator the same energy and political attention that the other SDG targets enjoy.

I am pleased that the Resolution places emphasis on adolescent health and wellbeing. I encourage further development in this area and will be glad for us to work towards giving adolescent health and wellbeing the political prominence it needs to successfully reduce preventable deaths and morbidity among young people.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations. Please be assured of our support and commitment towards health security for all, especially women, children and adolescents, which is essential if we are to attain our aspiration of a better world.