INTRODUCTION

Summary of Global Strategy

The 2016-30 Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (Global Strategy, launched at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015) sets out a bold new vision of, by 2030, “a world in which every woman, child and adolescent in every setting realizes their rights to physical and mental health and well-being, has social and economic opportunities, and is able to participate fully in shaping prosperous and sustainable societies.”

As a contributing strategy to guide efforts to address the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda, the Global Strategy builds on the successes of the previous 2010-2015 Global Strategy. These successes included political leadership and commitment, multi-stakeholder partnerships, a focus on accountability and scaling up innovations to improve health. Moreover, the Global Strategy identifies nine key action areas and also seeks to address ongoing challenges, namely to strengthen coordination and reduce fragmentation among various initiatives and funding efforts (both within the health sector and across other contributing sectors); to mobilize sufficient and effective financing for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health; and to ensure that country plans and priorities drive global collective action.

An overview of the Global Strategy is presented in Annex 1.

Why an Operational Framework?

This Operational Framework is intended to accompany the Global Strategy and to serve as a resource for national governments and the wide diversity of stakeholders within countries whose contributions are vital to improving the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents – including civil society, the private sector and development partners. It offers guidance and options for consideration as countries translate the Global Strategy into national and sub-national strategies and plans, starting with the period 2016-2020. These strategies can – and should – build on existing country-level processes and plans already underway.

This document is neither a prescriptive nor an exhaustive set of strategies. Instead, it presents objectives to implement the Global Strategy at country level around the nine action areas, including examples of country experiences. For each action area there is a corresponding “ingredient” for action:

Country leadership – Country leadership
Financing for health – Aligning and mobilizing financing
Health system resilience – Strengthening health systems
Individual potential – Establishing priorities for realizing individual potential
Community engagement – Supporting community engagement, participation and advocacy
Multisectoral action – Enhancing mechanisms for multisectoral action
Humanitarian and fragile settings – Strengthening capacity for action in humanitarian and fragile settings
Research and innovation – Fostering research and innovation
Accountability – Reinforcing global and national accountability mechanisms

The Operational Framework has been conceptualized as a “living document” with the potential to evolve as countries gain experience in translating the SDG agenda. It also provides an online central location to bring together tools and resources for implementation and to facilitate ongoing compilation and sharing of country experiences.

Global Strategy goals and targets

Survive, Thrive, Transform is the Global Strategy’s call to action. Its over-arching goals are to end preventable mortality and enable women, children and adolescents to enjoy good health and thrive while being at the centre of transformative change and sustainable development (Table 1). The targets to be achieved by 2030 under each of the goals are drawn from related SDG targets.

Table 1. Global Strategy goals and targets
(aligned with the SDGs and to be achieved by 2030)

SURVIVE End preventable deaths

Reduce global maternal mortality to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
Reduce newborn mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1000 live births in every country
Reduce under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1000 live births in every country
End epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases
and other communicable diseases
Reduce by one third premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases and promote mental
health and well-being

THRIVE Ensure health and well-being

End all forms of malnutrition, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women and children
Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services (including for family
planning) and rights
Ensure that all girls and boys have access to good quality early childhood development
Substantially reduce pollution-related deaths and illnesses
Achieve universal health coverage including financial risk protection and access to quality
essential services, medicines and vaccines

TRANSFORM Expand enabling environments

Eradicate extreme poverty
Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable
and good quality primary and secondary education
Eliminate all harmful practices and all discrimination and violence against women and girls
Achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and to adequate
sanitation and hygiene
Enhance scientific research, upgrade technological capabilities and encourage innovation
Provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development

Who is this Operational Framework for?

This Operational Framework, like the Global Strategy, is applicable to all countries. The key audience is national governments in their role leading and driving country action, along with their partners in countries, including the important contribution of civil society (including adolescent, youth and health professional networks), the private sector, and global and regional development partners.

In addition, the document aims to inform the responsibilities of related global and regional initiatives (e.g. commissions, partnerships and agreed frameworks such as the Common African Position) that are aligned with, and supportive of, country level implementation. Examples of these responsibilities include quality technical assistance that is coordinated and aligned with national priorities; identification of a clear division of labour amongst the global/regional agencies that provide support; facilitating joint learning through the sharing of best practices and experiences in scaling interventions; increased efficiency of available funding flows along with increased overall funding; robust supra-national accountability mechanisms; increased investment in innovation, research and development; and advocacy, particularly with regard to equity and a rights-based approach.

How was this Operational Framework developed?

The structure and content of this document have been developed with consideration to the written inputs received (from more than 7000 individuals and organisations) and the series of country consultations conducted to inform the Global Strategy (including in India, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates). Additional written inputs were sought and consultations were held in Tanzania, India, the United States, Mexico, Zambia, Uganda, Fiji and Bangladesh specifically for this Operational Framework. Finally, a draft of this document was made available online for public consultation in November 2015. These consultations represented a broad based, open and inclusive process with a wide range of stakeholders from governments, civil society, private sector and multilateral organizations.