Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent: Achievements and Prospects

This fourth and final report from the independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health (iERG) signals the conclusion of an unusual experiment in global health. The 2011 Commission on Information and Accountability (CoIA) was a landmark moment for women and children. Born from the UN Secretary-General’s signature Every Woman, Every Child initiative, the Commission sought to mark a new era in the way progress was measured for two critically important Millennium Development Goals. The Commission redefined the meaning of “monitoring and evaluation” and “mutual accountability,” transforming a purely technical process of tracking indicators into a political process of evaluating those indicators transparently and democratically, judging the performance of institutions responsible for making promises and commitments to women and children, and acting on the results of those evaluations and judgements.