R4D Managing Director Kanika Bahl participated in the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children on May 22 in New York City, where R4D recommendations were endorsed by a group of 20 high-level Commissioners.
The UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children met in a closed-door session with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Prime Minister of Norway, and many high-level donors, politicians, and corporate leaders. Kanika Bahl participated as co-lead of the Market Shaping group.
R4D’s recommendations were prepared by Kanika, Senior Program Officer Claire Qureshi, and Program Officer Pooja Shaw. Their work combined with others making up a set of ten recommendations, focused on increasing access to thirteen life-saving maternal and child health products (i.e. amoxicillin, zinc and oral rehydration salts).
All ten recommendations were endorsed by the Commission, and will be formally launched at the UN General Assembly in September. Increasing access to products under the Commission’s purview could save the lives of 2.5 million women and children by 2015. The Commission’s stated mission is to “advocate at the highest levels to build consensus around priority actions for increasing availability, affordability, accessibility and rational use of essential commodities for women’s and children’s health.”
Read the joint press release from various UN agencies related to the Commission.
Read Devex.com coverage or Kaiser Family Foundation coverage of the Commission.
Photo: A nurse at a Kusama Buana clinic in Indonesia takes care of an infant patient and his mother. (Alex Robinson/R4D)