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BERLIN, GERMANY, 16 October 2018—Eleven heads of the world’s leading health and development organizations today signed a landmark commitment to find new ways of working together to accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Coordinated by the World Health Organization, the initiative unites the work of 11 organizations, with others set to join in the next phase.

The commitment follows a request from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana, and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, with support from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, to develop a global plan of action to define how global actors can better collaborate to accelerate progress towards the health-related targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

“Healthy people are essential for sustainable development – to ending poverty, promoting peaceful and inclusive societies and protecting the environment. However, despite great strides made against many of the leading causes of death and disease, we must redouble our efforts or we will not reach several of the health-related targets,” the organizations announced today at the World Health Summit in Berlin. “The Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All represents an historic commitment to new ways of working together to accelerate progress towards meeting the 2030 goals. We are committed to redefine how our organizations work together to deliver more effective and efficient support to countries and to achieve better health and well-being for all people.”

The group has agreed to develop new ways of working together to maximize resources and measure progress in a more transparent and engaging way. The first phase of the plan’s development is organized under three strategic approaches: align, accelerate and account.

• Align: The organizations have committed to coordinate programmatic, financing and operational processes to increase collective efficiency and impact on a number of shared priorities such as gender equality and reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
• Accelerate: They have agreed to develop common approaches and coordinate action in areas of work that have the potential to increase the pace of progress in global health. The initial set of seven “accelerators” include community and civil society engagement, research and development, data and sustainable financing.
• Account: To improve transparency and accountability to countries and development partners, the health organizations are breaking new ground by setting common milestones for nearly 50 health-related targets across 14 Sustainable Development Goals. These milestones will provide a critical checkpoint and common reference to determine where the world stands in 2023 and whether it is on track to reach the 2030 goals.

The Global Action Plan will also enhance collective action and leverage funds to address gender inequalities that act as barriers to accessing health, and to improve comprehensive quality health care for women and girls, including sexual and reproductive health services. 

The organizations that have already signed up to the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All are: Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Global Financing Facility, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, Unitaid, UN Women, the World Bank and WHO. The World Food Programme has committed to join the plan in the coming months.

The final plan will be delivered in September 2019 at the United Nations General Assembly.

For more information, www.who.int/sdg/global-action-plan

Media enquiries

• Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance: Frédérique Tissandier; +41 79 300 8253; ftissandier@gavi.org
• Global Financing Facility: Melanie Mayhew; +1 202-459-7115; mmayhew1@worldbankgroup.org
• Global Fund: Ibon Villelabeitia; +41 79 292 5426; ibon.Villelabeitia@theglobalfund.org
• UNAIDS: Sophie Barton-Knott; +41 79 514 6896; bartonknotts@unaids.org
• UNDP: Adam Cathro; +19179159725; adam.cathro@undp.org
• UNFPA: Omar Gharzeddine; +1 212 297 5028; gharzeddine@unfpa.org
• UNICEF: Sabrina Sidhu; +1 917 476 1537; ssidhu@unicef.org
• Unitaid: Andrew Hurst, +41795616807; hursta@unitaid.who.int
• UN Women: Maria Sanchez Aponte; +16467814507; maria.sanchez@unwomen.org
• World Bank Group: Maya Brahmam; +1 202 361 2594; mbrahmam@worldbankgroup.org
• WHO: Christian Lindmeier; +4179 500 6552; lindmeierch@who.int

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are by far the biggest killers of people worldwide, responsible for 71% of all deaths globally. Defined by the World Health Organization as diseases of long duration and generally slow progression, the four main types of NCDs, which account for 80% of all NDC premature deaths, are cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

People of all ages can be affected by NCDs, but they tend to affect older people. With increasing numbers of people living with HIV accessing treatment and hence living longer, people living with HIV are increasingly falling ill with NCDs. Being HIV-positive, however, also increases the risk of developing NCDs, either because of the infection itself or owing to side-effects of the medicines used to treat HIV. The care that people living with HIV receive therefore increasingly needs to include care for NCDs.

Since people in many low- and middle-income countries are smoking more, drinking alcohol more and becoming less active, and their diets are changing, rates of NCDs are increasing. Age-adjusted death rates from NCDs are nearly twice as high in low- and middle-income countries as in high-income countries.

However, the successes to date in the AIDS response show what can be done if countries take decisive action. It is becoming increasingly clear that if the world is to control NCDs, the lessons of the AIDS response need to be learned and applied to the response to NCDs.

Health-care systems in regions that are home to most people living with HIV were designed to primarily address acute, rather than chronic, illnesses. However, HIV programmes in those same countries can be good models for how to step up services for NCDs, showing how to provide continuity of care, support adherence to treatment and engage communities.

The AIDS response has had a huge impact on global health. The impact of early diagnosis and treatment, HIV services being in many countries the entry point for broader health services, the importance of tackling poverty and other social determinants of health, raising community awareness and creating demand for services, the importance of putting civil society and communities in the centre, with their engagement, activism, advocacy and mobilization—these are all key lessons from the AIDS response that can guide the response to NCDs.

“The response to HIV has shown that the impossible is possible,” said Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS. “UNAIDS will work with our partners in the United Nations system to share best practices from the AIDS response to guide countries, communities and other partners.”

As part of the world’s effort to combat NCDs, on 27 September countries will come together in New York, United States of America, at the United Nations for the Third High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases. UNAIDS is a part of the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and will be sharing its knowledge at the high-level meeting.

A global coalition of more than 80 youth organizations working on HIV (the PACT), and Youth Voices Count (YVC) launched a poll to get a sense of what young people know about sexual reproductive health.

More than half of the 270,000 young people aged 10-24 from 21 countries who responded to the U-Report poll (54% of boys and young men, and 58% of girls and young women) sought HIV and other services at a health centre or clinic in the previous three months.  About 36% of young people aged 10-24 who did not seek services reported feeling uncomfortable visiting a health centre or clinic, and more than 28% of young people (both sexes) said they felt scared to seek services.

The poll with support from UNAIDS, UNICEF and UNFPA was complemented by an in-depth survey and interviews led by YVC, which showed that approximately 15% of those who accessed any sexual health services in the past 6 months experienced refusal or mistreatment because of their age, sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status. And of those who felt mistreated because of their age, 55% identified as gay, bisexual, and 25% identified themselves as living with HIV. Further, 32% of young gay, bisexual men and other young men who have sex with men, and 50% of young transgender people, felt that they had been discriminated against because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Finally,16% of young people who identified themselves as living with HIV said they had been mistreated because of their HIV status.

Although healthcare settings should be safe spaces for those receiving care, this is not the case. Policies and attitudes remain barriers to youth-friendly HIV and sexual and reproductive health services. Indeed, 37% of respondents who reported having visited a clinic were not willing to recommend doing so to their peers.

This year’s theme for International Youth Day is Safe Spaces for Youth, highlighting the need of young people for safe spaces to come together, hang out, and participate in decision making processes as well as freely express themselves. This includes in healthcare settings, which should be places of safety and refuge, free from stigma, maltreatment, and violence.

Every day, approximately 1600 young people are infected with HIV, while one young person dies of AIDS-related illnesses every 10 minutes. Young women aged 15-24 are particularly affected. In sub-Saharan Africa, young women are twice as likely to be infected with HIV as their male counterparts. And young key populations (including gay men and other men who have sex with men, bisexual people, transgender people, young sex workers and young people who inject drugs) are at a high risk of HIV around the world due to rights violations, discrimination, exclusion, criminalization and violence. Of the young people living with HIV globally, most do not know their status.

Download more slides like this from 2018 Global AIDS Update Miles to Go 

Some 18 months after the launch of the catch-up plan, the National AIDS Council (CNLS), the Ministry of Health and UNAIDS co-organized a workshop in Bangui, to take stock of the progress and the challenges to accelerate access to treatment for people living with HIV in the Central African Republic. The workshop also served as an opportunity to renew political commitment to the HIV response and to call for urgent action on prevention.

The Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, Simplice Mathieu Sarandji, opened the meeting with 80 stakeholders present, including members of government, civil society organisations, people living with HIV, members of key populations, as well as local governments, traditional and religious leaders.

Key areas of progress since the launch of the catch-up plan in January 2017 included the development of new policies to implement test and treat, and the increase in the number of people on HIV treatment from 25,000 in 2016 to 34,000 in June 2018. Community treatment groups have been delivering HIV treatment to people in remote and insecure regions such as the eastern town of Zemio. In addition, a community treatment observatory is helping monitor access to and quality of HIV care in Bangui.

However, there are miles to go. Less than 35% of people living with HIV in Central African Republic access treatment — this is among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa. Challenges include an inadequate monitoring and evaluation system, a lack of effective supervision of facilities providing HIV services, limited community engagement to implement HIV testing and treatment, as well as limited financial commitments to reach treatment targets. Most agreed on the need to improve coordination.

As a result, participants identified priorities for the next six months to reach treatment targets for 2019. All stressed that communities, people living with HIV and key populations must be involved every step of the way. In addition, participants stressed the urgent need for increased domestic and donor funding.

A steering committee and technical working groups prepared the two-day workshop based on available data and on-the ground site visits. The groups included representatives from the Ministry of Health, CNLS, community organisations, people living with HIV, international NGOs such as Medécins Sans Frontières and the French Red Cross as well as UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO and UNAIDS.

The World Health Organization released the new International Classification of Diseases, ICD-11, on 18 June.

The new version no longer defines issues associated with transgender identity as a mental disorder. Instead, there are new categories of gender incongruence of adolescence and adulthood and gender incongruence of childhood, which are classified as conditions related to sexual health.

The ICD provides a holistic look at every aspect of life that can affect health and supports decision-making for programming services and the allocation of spending.

“A shameful history of pathologization, institutionalization, “conversion” and sterilization begins to come to a close,” said Mauro Cabral Grinspan, the Executive Director of GATE, an international organization working on issues of gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics. 

Michel Sidibé, the UNAIDS Executive Director, welcomed the decision. “This is an important step to increase access to health services by transgender people,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization’s report Transgender people and HIV, transgender people are 49 times more likely to acquire HIV than all adults of reproductive age. They often face, from a young age, stigma, discrimination and social rejection in their homes and communities for expressing their gender identity. Such discrimination, violence and criminalization prevent transgender people from getting the HIV services they need to stay healthy.

Although the new ICD version will be presented for final approval at the World Health Assembly in May 2019, transgender activists are already working on the next steps, including the revision of the categories and definitions, as well as reception at the national level.

Mauro Cabral Grinspan said, “We will work with our allies to ensure effective implementation at the country level to improve regulations while ensuring full access to legal gender recognition and to gender-affirming health care.”

Gender-based violence is one of the most persistent violations of human rights across the globe. According to the World Health Organization, about one third of women worldwide have experienced violence. Intimate partner violence increases the risk of HIV, in some regions by up to 1.5 times. Among marginalized populations, a high prevalence of violence is linked with higher rates of HIV infection, in particular among transgender women.

In Kenya, a recent study found that 32% of young women aged 18–24 years and 18% of their male counterparts reported experiencing sexual violence before the age of 18. Gender-based violence reduces the bargaining power to negotiate safer sex, stay on treatment or remain in school.

To shine a light and galvanize action to end gender-based violence in Kenya, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), together with the Kenya Medical Women’s Association and the Kenya Women Judges Association, and partners, launched the Tuongee (Let’s Talk) Campaign on 25 May at an event hosted by Nicolas Nihon, the Ambassador of Belgium to Kenya and UNFPA.

Speaking at the launch, Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, said, “Gender-based violence and HIV are intertwined epidemics. If we are to transform either, we must address the structural barriers that drive both.” He spoke about the need to equip young women with the skills and capacities to make informed decisions about their health and underscored the critical importance of engaging boys and men early to change behaviours and challenge norms that allow gender-based violence to persist.

A young survivor of gender-based violence from Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria, made a moving and powerful testimony, reminding participants of the critical importance of the campaign and the need to speak up to help survivors to accept and heal. She also urged parents to talk to their children about violence and to support them in speaking out.

Mr Nihon underlined the commitment of the Government of Belgium to combat all forms of gender-based violence and commended the work of the Kenya partners in supporting the survivors.

“Gender-based violence is, unfortunately, not an uncommon phenomenon against women and girls,” said Ademola Olajide, UNFPA Representative to Kenya. “Care and support for the survivors is critical to eliminate gender-based violence and requires a multisectorial approach.”

The participants affirmed that community-level action combined with global advocacy and structural change can lead to change and that there is much potential to build on the good work already done to accelerate results.

Achieving gender equality, advancing women’s empowerment and fulfilling the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls are central to UNAIDS’ work and crucial to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and achieving the targets set in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS.

UNAIDS, together with a wide range of partners, including women living with HIV and women’s organizations, are working to ensure that women and girls everywhere have their rights fulfilled and are empowered to protect themselves against HIV and that all women and girls living with HIV have immediate access to HIV treatment and care.

Around the world, many women, children and adolescents still have little or no access to quality health services and education, clean air and water, adequate sanitation and good nutrition. And far too many face violence and discrimination, unequal access to power and opportunity, and numerous barriers that harm their physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.

To accelerate change, the executive heads of the H6 partnership met on the sidelines of the United Nations System Chief Executives Board in London, United Kingdom, on 2 May and agreed a new results framework, H6 Results 2020. H6 Results 2020 aims to shape the H6 partnership into a trusted, valued source for technical support, strategic policy advice and best practices for the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.

Developed under the chairpersonship of UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé, H6 Results 2020 is closely aligned with the Every Woman Every Child Every Adolescent Global Strategy and the 2020 Every Woman Every Child Partners’ Framework. H6 Results 2020 sets ambitious goals while committing to deliver on a number of concrete results for 2020.

“I am excited about our revitalized H6 partnership. As the technical arm of the Every Woman Every Child movement, we plan to further streamline and simplify the health architecture, coordinating with key partners to leverage political capital, technical expertise and advocacy for results for women, children and adolescents everywhere,” said Mr Sidibé.

Taking forward the vision endorsed by the executive heads in March 2018, H6 Results 2020 builds on the achievements of the H6 to date and reinforces existing mechanisms while strengthening United Nations mechanisms to support countries. It outlines how the H6 will harmonize efforts of the six H6 organizations and with key partners at the country, regional and global levels and will focus on the countries with the highest burdens of maternal, child and adolescent mortality and morbidity for intensified action.

“The H6 partnership plays a critical role in ensuring that countries focus on the health needs of women in an intersectional way, with laser-like focus on gender equality, human rights and other enablers, such as education,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director of UN Women.

By amplifying its added value, the H6 partnership seeks to serve as a living laboratory for United Nations reform—heeding the call of the United Nations Secretary-General for a more country-focused, coordinated, efficient and accountable development system better able to assist countries in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“It is important that the United Nation comes together to focus its technical support on key priorities in a few high-burden countries, and what must drive our focus is results for people,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

While committed to driving progress across a range of priorities for women, children and adolescent health, H6 Results 2020 puts clear emphasis on reaching adolescents. Adolescent girls and boys (aged 10–19 years) remain a particularly underserved population by the health and social programmes of many countries. Ensuring the health and well-being of adolescents is critical to delivering on the mandate of each of the H6 partners.

“The H6 partnership has proven that working in close collaboration and bringing different expertise and experience to the table is not only effective in enabling countries to deliver rights-based quality care for the women and girls left furthest behind, but also ensures strong country ownership,” said Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.

Seven months after launching the catch-up plan in western and central Africa, progress on increasing the numbers of people on antiretroviral treatment continues to lag in the region. Many countries will not reach key targets by 2020 if the current systems remain unchanged.

"Overall we saw a 10% percent increase of people on treatment, which is not enough," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé. "Now, there is even more a sense of urgency."

Mr Sidibé, however, pointed to the success in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there was a clear increase in the number of people living with HIV accessing ARVs. The reasons for the positive trend included civil society and political leadership working closely together as well as community HIV testing and the training of 11 000 health care workers.

"More than ever there is a need to rethink health systems and alternatives for people to access health care," he said.

The call to delegate patient care to communities was a major rallying call during AFRAVIH, the international francophone HIV and hepatitis conference held in Bordeaux, France, early April. Mr Sidibé briefly shared the stage at the opening ceremony with the civil society organisation Coalition PLUS. They declared that the key to success in ending AIDS involved joining forces between doctors and community health workers and giving more leeway to communities to respond to the local needs of their own people.

Under the banner, "De-medicalize" the organisation explained that doctors will never be replaced but that there were too few of them and people living with HIV didn't require acute care.

Coalition Plus' recent report states that governments and the medical practitioners should delegate more tasks to nurses and community health workers. In addition to allowing for more targeted prevention and faster access to treatment, delegation of non-medical tasks would lighten the load on overburdened health systems. West and central Africa represent 17% of the total population living with HIV but 30% of deaths in the region are from AIDS-related illnesses. This is a region, according to UNAIDS and its partners, that can truly benefit from community models of care.

What worries Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is the risk of a significant drop in resources for treatment will hamper recent improvements in west and central Africa. This concern stems from the fact that Global Fund estimates a 30% drop in fund allocations to the region for 2018 – 2020 compared to signed HIV grants in the previous allocation period. In 2016, MSF was among the first to sound alarm bells regarding the region's high HIV death toll and the up to 80% of children unable to access antiretroviral therapy. MSF HIV Policy Advisor and Advocacy Officer Nathalie Cartier said that they supported the west and central Africa catch-up plan but that it needed to be fully implemented. "Political will has been promising but now it's time to make it a reality on the ground so that people living with HIV can reap the benefits," she said.

Global Fund supported the catch-up plan and works closely with countries in order to maximize the impact of the investments. They believe that leveraging additional domestic financing for health is crucial to increase country ownership and build sustainable programs.

All the more reason to decentralize healthcare systems and capitalize on innovations to keep health costs down.  HIV self-testing, new medicines and high impact strategies involving communities are critical to improving efficiencies.  "With point-of-care (POC) testing in communities and homes, delays are minimal between diagnosis and initiating treatment," said Cheick Tidiane Tall, Director of Réseau EVA, a network of pediatric doctors specialized in HIV care. “In the long run, that's a lot of people and resources saved,” he added.

Côte d'Ivoire Infectious and Tropical Diseases professor Serge Eholié couldn't agree more.  "Flexible health care systems capitalizing on various innovations makes a lot of sense," he said. Turning to the Minister of Health in the Central African Republic, Pierre Somse, he asked, 'How do you respond?'

Mr Somse, also a trained doctor, said, "We doctors will stay doctors. However, there is a need for us to lean on communities and vice versa."  He added, "at the heart of the issue are patients and they are and should always be the priority."

“Right now, I just want to go to a country where there is peace,” says a young student who fled the conflict in his home country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His new home is Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Area in the Hoima District of Uganda—the place that will give him a chance to fulfil his dream of a peaceful life.

The Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Area lies on the banks of Lake Albert on the border between southern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda. Most of the refugees in Kyangwali are fleeing interethnic conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and making the perilous journey into Uganda on fishing boats across Lake Albert. Since January 2018, approximately 59 000 people have made the crossing. On a normal day 500 refugees arrive; on a busy day it can be as many as 2000.

Families arrive with whatever personal belongings they can carry—from mattresses and cookware to valuables, such as solar panels, piled high among the passengers in the boats. The boat ride can take as little as six hours if people travel in a motorized vessel or as much as 12 hours if they travel by canoe. “Boats sometimes run out of fuel in the middle of the lake and Ugandan marine police have to bail them out,” says Bornwell Kantande, Representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Uganda. “Other boats have capsized from overloading—at the peak of the influx of refugees as many as 200 people would pile onto a single canoe.”

Upon arrival at the Kyangwali reception centre, refugees are registered by aid workers and given a wristband for identification purposes. They receive high-energy biscuits and water and those who need it are given emergency health care. Refugees stay at the reception centre for a day or two before being transported to the settlement area, where they are allocated a small plot of land and material and equipment to build temporary shelter while they establish themselves.  

In a recent visit to the reception centre, Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, witnessed first-hand the health services that are offered to newly arrived refugees at its small makeshift clinic. Here refugees obtain access to emergency health care and are informed about the minimum initial service package for reproductive health, which they receive throughout the different phases of new arrival: border crossing; the short stay at the reception centre; before transportation to the settlement area; and during settlement. Services include HIV testing and tuberculosis screening, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services, provision of HIV and tuberculosis treatment to people already on it and other sexual and reproductive health services.

During his visit, Mr Sidibé listened to the stories of many refugees, who told him not only of the impact that dislocation has had on their health and their lives, but also of their aspirations and dreams to make a better life for themselves and their families. “I heard stories of sadness, but also of hope and resilience,” says Mr Sidibé.

Uganda is home to the largest refugee population in Africa, with a population of almost 1.4 million refugees in 13 refugee settlements across the country. The majority of refugees are from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the latter of which has close to five million displaced people—almost as many as in the Syrian Arab Republic.

“It is beyond admirable to selflessly offer refuge to hundreds of thousands of women, children and men who are in need of international protection,” remarked Mr Sidibé. “Uganda’s refugee policy is among the most progressive in the world and is a model for other countries to emulate.”

The H6 combines the strengths of six international organizations to help countries to realize the United Nations Secretary-General’s Every Woman Every Child strategy. The partnership mobilizes political commitment and resources to transform societies so that women, children and adolescents can realize their rights to the highest attainable standards of health and well-being.

High-level representatives of the six organizations met in New York, United States of America, to shape a shared vision for the H6. During the meeting, which took place on 21 March, health leaders committed to jointly deliver more and faster results in countries.

The Chair of the H6, Michel Sidibé, shared his vision for the partnership, including how it can evolve to meet the demands of the Sustainable Development Goals, including in humanitarian settings, and be a leading platform to advance United Nations reform.

“As a transformative platform, I see the H6 as an outstanding opportunity to rapidly bring United Nations reform to life and deliver results for every woman, child and adolescent on the ground,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS.

The participants were united in their ambition to make the H6 a one-stop shop for countries for strategic policy advice, technical assistance and strategic information. Adolescent health, particularly for 10–18-year-olds, was discussed as a key focus area.

“I see an effective H6 partnership as an important way to drive health impact at the country level for all children, including by better addressing gaps in services for the age group from 10 to18 years old, and by planting the seeds of development in humanitarian contexts,” said Henrietta Fore, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The participants also committed to ensure policy-making in which communities have a voice and decided to build innovative partnerships with stakeholders beyond the United Nations.

Enhanced transparency and accountability of the H6 and reducing fragmentation and duplication in the United Nations system, as well as between the United Nations and the World Bank, will be key to success, as will a strong focus on joint reporting of results. The H6 will also work in close collaboration with the Global Financing Facility and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health.

“The United Nations Population Fund is strongly committed to the H6 partnership, which has proven that working in close collaboration and bringing different expertise and experience to the table is not only effective in enabling countries to deliver quality care for the women and girls left furthest behind, but also ensures strong country ownership,” said Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.

The H6 principals will now develop a results framework and reconvene in May to review and endorse it. They are aiming to adopt a road map to roll out new ways of working by mid-year.