The U.N. is organizing a high-level commission that will develop an accountability framework to track spending of resources for women and children’s health. The framework is also expected to produce the evidence needed to identify which programs are most effective in saving the lives of women and children.
The Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health will be co-chaired by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure and World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan will serve as vice chairs.
The establishment of the commission is in response to a directive under the U.N. Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health that requires WHO to establish a way to “determine the most effective international institutional arrangements for global reporting, oversight and accountability for women’s and children’s health,” according to a news release from the Every Women, Every Child organization.
The accountability framework to be developed by the commission is expected to include the following functions:
- Monitoring results and resource flows at global and country levels.
- Identifying a core set of indicators to measure the needs for women’s and children’s health.
- Recommending steps to improve health information and registration of vital events, such as births and deaths, in low-income countries.
- Exploring opportunities for innovation in information technology to boost access to reliable information on resources and outcomes.
