Source ForPressRelease.com

Alongside the 2020 UN General Assembly, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), White Ribbon Alliance and Every Woman Every Child will jointly host a live virtual event focusing on ensuring that governments, funders and other key actors in global development show greater accountability for the health and rights of women, children and adolescents during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.  



Up to 2000 delegates from all over the world are expected to attend this half-day event. It will bring together stakeholders from governments to grassroots organisations, allowing those with the power to make changes to hear directly from those calling for fundamental changes to be made in a lively interactive forum. 



Keynote Sessions:



Led by the Rt Hon Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Board Chair of PMNCH, and moderated by Mercy Juma of the BBC, the Accountability Breakfast will: 



· Discuss the difference that women’s political leadership makes to public accountability in relation to the pandemic; 



· Present just released 2020 Progress Report on the EWEC Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents’ Health; 



· Feature a citizen’s parliament that brings together women’s and girls’ lived experiences, a panel of female community leaders from India, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria and the United Kingdom, in dialogue with political leaders for commitments to the Call-to-Action on COVID-19; 



· Unite partners in aligning for action under a new ambitious five-year strategy for PMNCH. 



Speakers:



Dr Harsh Vardan - Minister of Health and Family Welfare, India

H.E. Kersti Kaljulaid - President of the Republic of Estonia and Co-Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child

Dr Hugo López-Gatell – Vice Minister of Health, Mexico

Hon. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Former President of Liberia (2006-2018) 

Congresswoman Barbara Lee - United States Representative

Dr Shannon Hader - Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS

Joy Phumaphi - Co-Chair, the Independent Accountability Panel for EWEC

Oriana López Uribe - Executive Director of Balance / Feminist Activist Spokesperson for MARIA Foundation, Mexico

Gerda Verburg - Executive Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement

Helga Fogstad - Executive Director, PMNCH



The event features a moderated chat, live performances, and online polling, with simultaneous sign language interpretation, French and Spanish translation. 



WHY ATTEND? COVID-19 not only threatens hard-won gains for women, children and adolescents around the world, it could also push new progress yet further away. Going forward, the moral, political and fiscal choices we take about what, how and who we support, will shape the future direction of our planet for decades.  



This Accountability Breakfast will set the agenda and articulate the expectations of the world’s women, children and adolescents for a world that respects their contributions, meets their needs and guarantees their inviolable rights.