R4D Managing Director Kanika Bahl was asked to co-chair the Market Shaping work stream of the new UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children.

As co-chair, Kanika will lead the Market Shaping working group in identifying market-based strategies that dramatically increase access to overlooked reproductive, maternal, child, and neonatal health commodities to prepare recommendations for the UN Commission's May 22 meeting.

The UN Commission is led by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway and has been established to advocate at the highest levels to build consensus around priority actions for increasing availability, affordability, and accessibility of essential commodities for maternal and child health. The Commission’s work builds on the UN’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which was developed under the auspices of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Vice Chairs of the Commission are UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin, and additional Commission members include CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations, directors and ministers of major governmental and multilateral development agencies, and top executives from central foundations and non-profit organizations.

Kanika will be co-chairing this work with Oliver Sabot, EVP of Global Programs at the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).