Protect the Progress: Rise, Refocus, Recover

"As we respond to COVID-19 and reimagine a better future,...we must repeat unequivocally that the rights of women and girls are not negotiable." - Natalia Kanem, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director

Launched in 2010, Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) is a multi-stakeholder movement of collective advocacy and action that places women, children, and adolescents at the centre of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the past decade, there have been many signs of progress; for example, under-5 deaths reached an all-time recorded low in 2019, more than a billion children were vaccinated in the last 10 years, and more girls are staying in schools than ever before. However, the progress did not reach every woman or every child. In particular, the COVID-19 crisis is exacerbating inequities, with reported disruptions in essential health interventions disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable women and children. This report explores the global progress in women's, children's, and adolescents' health over the past decade, including up-to-date information on the impact of COVID-19. It asks: What can the global community do to "build back better" and support countries to stay on track for achieving the SDGs?

The report is organised into 3 sections:

1. The first takes stock of global progress towards the survive, thrive, and transform dimensions of EWEC's Global Strategy. This strategy includes 6 focus areas, all examined in this report: early childhood development; adolescent health and well-being; quality, equity, and dignity in services; sexual and reproductive health and rights; empowerment of women, girls, and communities; and humanitarian and fragile settings. This section of the report presents the baseline before COVID-19, noting that, even prior to the pandemic, women, children, and adolescents living in remote areas or in low-income countries, and those forced to leave their homes due to conflict or other humanitarian disasters, remained disproportionately unreached by health and other services, with birthplace being a significant determinant of survival.
2. The second section provides a summary of the latest tracking of the EWEC commitments and endorsements of the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement (MAYE) [PDF], both of which can be used to assess the global community's accountability in investing in women's, children's, and adolescents' health. The MAYE, for example, envisions "an inclusive, intentional, mutually-respectful partnership between adolescents, youth, and adults whereby power is shared, respective contributions are valued, and young people's ideas, perspectives, skills, and strengths are integrated into the design and delivery of programs, strategies, policies, funding mechanisms, and organizations that affect their lives and their communities, countries, and world."
3. The third section examines the impact of COVID-19 on progress made previously on women's, children's, and adolescents' health. As the data show, actions taken to control the virus have disproportionately affected women and children, with ramifications including lower rates of immunisations, reversals in learning outcomes due to school closures, surging reports of violence and abuse directed at girls and women, and increased poverty, hunger, and food insecurity. The report also examines some strategies countries have introduced to reduce such degradation. For example:
   • In response to the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on Ghana, leadership at the national and regional levels of the Ghana Health Service, in collaboration with health partners, took steps to ensure the continuity of, and sustain demand for and use of, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services. Among the steps: Communities have been engaged through communication of the measures put in place to ensure their safety in accessing the services during the pandemic through use of various platforms - e.g., short message service (SMS, or text) and audio messages by telecom networks, community broadcast networks, billboards, and mobile vans - and people (e.g., voices of the Paediatric Society of Ghana, as well as traditional leaders and other influential persons). An assessment of selected health facilities found that service providers felt more confident in providing RMNCAH, and patient trust in the capacity of the health system to provide safe services has improved.

   This section also discusses how the pandemic has spotlighted the urgency of strengthening health information systems so that countries have the data they need to swiftly and effectively respond to emergencies such as COVID-19 and to regularly monitor their health systems. Timely, disaggregated data across sectors could, for example, highlight crucial areas for concerted action, as outlined in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) Call to Action on COVID-19:

   • Ensuring access to information, health services, and life-saving supplies for women, children, and adolescents;
   • Promoting sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality;
   • Guaranteeing quality, respectful, and dignified health care;
   • Providing training, equal, and fair pay and safe working conditions for health workers, notably midwives and nurses;
   • Ensuring social protection, including food and nutrition, for marginalised and vulnerable groups;
   • Improving access to safe and clean water, toilets, and handwashing facilities; and
   • Preventing violence against women, children, and adolescents.

In short, the report makes clear that achievement of the SDGs and the Global Strategy targets requires actions including:

• Greater investment - to build health systems that are resilient to shocks such as conflicts, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks so that countries are able to consistently provide high-quality, integrated services for women, children, and adolescents.
• Greater coordination across the agricultural, health, education, water and sanitation, and social protection sectors - to address the social determinants of health and to make sure that no one is left behind.
• Greater participation of people and communities in decision-making around health and related services - to ensure these services respond to their needs and are delivered respectfully and with a high level of quality. Civil society engagement in healthcare planning and monitoring is also fundamental to holding governments and their partners accountable.

In conclusion: "COVID-19 is neither the first global pandemic nor the first catastrophe to cause the world to tumult into recession. Recovery has often been achieved through multilateral action and continued investment in development. The EWEC platform can provide a mechanism to support these actions and sustained commitments so that women, children and adolescents are not forgotten and so that their futures remain full of possibilities."

The 2020 Progress Report is available as:

• The full 92-page report in English in PDF format.
• An interactive website that takes visitors on a multimedia journey, highlighting key data, analysis, and solutions from the report.
• A 5-page summary of the report in English.
• A 5-page summary of the report in French.
• A 5-page summary of the report in Spanish.