“One thing is clear:
No single entity – no single nation or organization, can solve the problems
alone We need to put the problems at the centre and mobilize all actors to
achieve effective change.”  Jan Eliasson, UN Deputy Secretary-General

Healthcare
provision is in dire straits in many regions of the world.  Capacity limitations
of healthcare systems in West Africa, for example, were exposed during the
recent response to the Ebola crisis.  The UN’s Economic and Social Council’s
Partnership Forum on the 28 May, focused on how to support developing countries
in creating multi-year plans that would prevent further crises.  A key way of
doing this is through stakeholder partnerships.

 

 

Former
President of the United States, Bill Clinton, spoke about how
stakeholder partnerships support development and how the Clinton Foundation has worked with the Rwandan Government to improve access to healthcare.  Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC echoed the same principles, stressing the important
role partnerships would play in the transition from the Millennium Development
Goals to the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Current
development challenges, and the global push to solve them, means now is the time
for change.  The focus must be on financial support, disease prevention and
promoting self-sufficiency.  Partnerships should be developed that include
donors, countries, NGOs and other stakeholders to alleviate strain on
healthcare systems.  The goal of partners must be to achieve the post-2015
Development Agenda, decrease prevalent diseases and alleviate hunger.  As we
move forward, women and girls must not be left behind.

 

Photo: Martin Sajdik, Permanent Representative of Austria to the UN and President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), addresses the 2015 ECOSOC Partnerships Forum on the theme, “The role of partnerships in achieving the post-2015 development agenda: Making it happen”.

 

Ministers
of Health from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia presented via telecast and
discussed priorities and activities in their respective countries.  “They were
all united by the common themes of collapsing of the healthcare systems, social
disruption, lack of portable water, power, hygiene, medical workers, and disease
prevention and control,” explains Soroptimist Interntional UN Representative Gloria Essoka, who
attended the event, “all of these countries have a high prevalence of
tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. Without improved services these difficulties
will only increase harming individuals and the country as a whole.”

 

Click on the image above to watch the UN ECOSOC Partnership Forum

 

“Protecting and promoting the health of women is crucial to
health and development – not only for the citizens of today but also for those
of future generations.” Dr Margaret Chan Director-General World Health Organization 

When solving these development challenges, the needs of women and
girls cannot be forgotten.  Women and girls are repeatedly not
considered when developing healthcare policies. Despite knowing this, the full
extent of the problem is still not known as there are gaps in data collection
and statistical analysis that in turn informs how money is spent and development
programmes are targeted. Pregnancy, childbirth and reproductive health, aging,
and injury due to intimate partner violence are just some of the gender-specific
healthcare issues that women experience.

 

 

An extract from UN Women’s Beijing+20 infographic on women and health. See the whole infographic here.

 

As
reported by the World Health Organisation, one of the key ways of improving
women’s health  is removing financial barriers to healthcare.  Evidence from
several countries shows that removing user fees for maternal healthcare,
especially for deliveries, can increase the
uptake of essential services.  Removing financial barriers to care must
accompany efforts to ensure that health services are appropriate,
acceptable, of high quality and responsive to the needs of girls and women.

The
need to promote partnerships in developing healthcare provision capacity cannot
be under estimated.  NGOs can ensure the most vulnerable access quality healthcare. 
As we look towards the post-2015 Development Agenda organisations must ask
themselves what they can do to implement progress, and governments must be open
to working in partnerships with NGOs and other stakeholders.