Meeting of the Commissioners

Affordable, life-saving medicines and health supplies with the potential to save millions of lives are not reaching the children and women who most need them.

To help change this, the Commissioners of the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children met in New York on May 22. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

The Commissioners discussed recommendations to help increase access, reduce costs, and ensure the quality  of 13 commodities that can prevent women from dying during pregnancy or delivery and help infants live through their first days and weeks.

«The day of birth is the most dangerous day in the life of a woman and her child. The fact that women do not get the care they need during childbirth is the most brutal expression of discrimination against women,» said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

The Commission will deliver recommendations and an action plan to the UN General Assembly in September 2012.

The Commission was initiated by the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and is co-chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway. UNICEF’s Executiev Director Tony Lake and UNFPA’s Executive Director Babtunde Osotimehin serve as vice-chairs.

Links

• UN Commision on Life-Saving Commodities for women and children
• UN Commissioners aim to adopt new recommendations to increase access to health commodities (Press Release from UNICEF/UNFPA)
• List of Commissioners
• Twitter: #supplylife