EWEC is in many ways a success story, but a lot of deep-rooted inequities, further amplified by climate change and COVID-19, continue to deprive women, children and adolescents of their rights, Pesident of Estonia and EWEC Co-chair Kersti Kaljulaid stated at the presentation of the progress report.
Every Woman, Every Child (EWEC) is a global movement that addresses the major health challenges facing women, children and adolescents around the world. The report covers 10 years of EWEC-s activity, with positive results like significant declines in child and maternal mortality, over 25 million child marriages have been prevented, and more girls are going to school and staying in school than ever before, President Kaljulaid said.
However, according to President Kaljulaid, this progress has not reached every woman, nor every child and already difficult situations, like humanitarian crisis or living in a conflict zone, are further amplified by the climate crisis, which is now an existential threat, which has a disproportionate impact on women and children.
Also, diseases have long been barriers to progress and in her words the current pandemic has exposed the lack of fairness in societies around the globe: “It is an unprecedented threat that has already disrupted routine childhood vaccinations, kept children out of school, reduced access to sexual and reproductive services, increased rates of gender-based violence, and more.”
The current situation may be challenging, but it is time to go from crisis to comeback: we need national policies and budgets to target inequality and protect human rights, but also global solidarity and cooperation, President Kaljulaid stressed.
She also added that by using new technologies we can not only reach out to a wider audience of supporters but also raise awareness and really help those in need: “We should learn from the COVID-19 pandemic that showed to all of us – from Europe to Africa to small island states – the importance of technologies. I firmly believe that digital technologies are an equaliser.”
President Kersti Kaljulaid is the Co-chair of the EWEC movement since 2019.The high-level steering group for Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) is an unprecedented global movement that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society.
Today EWEC 2020 Progress Report on the Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health was released that analyses trends in women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health in the past 10 years.
The report can be found here: https://protect.everywomaneverychild.org/
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