Striving to improve health for women and children in South

It was a bit chilly in midtown Manhattan in New York City, with drizzles dropping down from a leaden sky. However, unlike the nasty weather outside, warmth and happiness filled a spacious hotel hall just across the street from the UN Headquarters in New York. Cladded in a black suit in a yellow tie, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received on Thursday the South-South Awards from Winston Baldwin Spencer, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, in recognition of his leading role in the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health. "I accept this plaque on behalf of the men and women working across the globe to save millions of women, newborn infants and children," the secretary-general said at the ceremony, organized by the South-South News, which is a digital media platform for the countries of the South. Ban was flanked by Spencer, Francis Lorenzo, president of the South-South News, and UN ambassadors from Antigua and Barbuda, Tajikistan, Malawi, Dominica, El Salvador and Honduras, all standing beside the blue UN flag. The secretary-general was awarded because he "has been at the forefront of the fight to improve the health of hundreds of millions of women and children around the world and in so doing, to improve the lives of all people," Spencer said. In his speech, Lorenzo congratulated Ban for his commitment in promoting a global strategy for women's and children's health, an area where action is urgently required to enhance financing, strengthen policy, and improve service delivery. "As you know, global health is one of my top priorities," Ban said. "The reason is simple: health is a foundation for prosperity, stability and poverty reduction." In September 2010, the secretary-general launched the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health at the UN Headquarters to save the lives of more than 16 million women and children, with more than 40 billion U.S. dollars already committed to scale up health services worldwide. The Global Strategy was launched on the margins of a high- level summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of globally agreed social and economic targets with a 2015 deadline, which include a number of health objectives, such as Goal 4 on reducing the mortality rate for children under the age of five by two-thirds and Goal 5 on slashing maternal mortality rates by three quarters, both from their 1990 figures. "The Strategy was created with the full support and collaboration of governments, international bodies, philanthropic organizations, the private sector and civil society," Ban said. "In our time, it is unacceptable to allow women and children to die when we have the tools and resources to save them," he said. A year ago, the United Nations strove to honor commitment to improve women's and children's health, to develop a framework to ensure accountability and to work together to bring in new partners, he said. "This is what we are doing." "As I prepare for my second term, I am determined to make Every Woman Every Child one of the greatest success stories in our march toward truly sustainable development," he said. "In a single year, this effort has been turned into a truly global movement." "I have championed this cause in many countries, in my meetings with world leaders and in my appeals to partners in the private sector and civil society," he said. "They have responded with a wealth of funding, ideas and initiatives." "And we are getting results," he said. "As of today, more than 60 countries have committed to step up efforts to improve women and children's health. Fifty-seven are southern governments. It is in the South where implementation of commitments has begun in earnest," he said. In Bangladesh, midwives are being trained and deployed. In India, new business models are ensuring quality and affordable deliveries for mothers at hospitals. In Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, innovations in technologies are helping to deliver care in rural areas. "Governments and other partners are investing in essential -- but often neglected -- medical supplies -- providing access to family planning, and putting more money into health and development budgets." Partners have dedicated more than four billion U.S. dollars for new vaccines. With this funding, 250 million women and children can be vaccinated in the coming years. "As a result of our initiatives, and the other ongoing work, more children are living past their fifth birthday," Ban said. "Fewer women are dying in childbirth," he said. "More HIV- positive mothers are giving birth to HIV-negative babies." However, the secretary-general warned that "millions of women and children are still dying needless deaths." "Political roadblocks litter the path ahead. Decisions to invest where resources are most needed can be slow," he said. "A women's right to access the services she needs is sometimes denied. Trained health workers are in desperately short supply. Women and children across the developing world still struggle with poor sanitation, dirty water and food shortages."