Keeping Promises, Measuring Results
The Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, which was co-chaired by President Jakaya Kikwete of United Republic of Tanzania and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, comprising some 30 commissioners from government, civil society, academia, the UN and other multilateral agencies, was established in January 2011. It presented its advance report in May 2011 Keeping Promises, Measuring Results.
In it’s report the Commission made the following 10 recommendations:
- Increasing the number of countries with well-developed systems to measure births, deaths and causes of deaths;
- Measuring against 11 common indicators on reproductive, maternal and child health;
- Helping countries integrate the use of Information and Communication Technologies in their national health information systems;
- Countries with high maternal and child deaths track and report resource indicators;
- Country governments and major development partners put "compacts" in place that require reporting, based on country format, on externally funded expenditures and predictable commitments;
- All governments have the capacity to regularly review health spending and to relate spending to commitments;
- Countries have established national accountability mechanisms that are transparent, inclusive of stakeholders and recommend action as necessary;
- All stakeholders are publicly sharing information on commitments, resources provided and results achieved annually at both national and international levels;
- The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) agree on how to better capture all reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health spending by development partners;
- An independent Expert Review Group is reporting regularly to the UN Secretary-General on results and resources related to the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health and progress of the implementation of these recommendations.
The accountability framework for women’s and children’s health
Recommendations 7 and 10 specifically address the issue of accountability at the national and global levels. Recommendation 7 states that countries should establish transparent and inclusive national accountability mechanisms to recommend remedial action if required. Recommendation 10 established an Independent Expert Review Group (IERG).
The IERP is already working and includes seven experts co-chaired by Prof Richard Horton and Mrs Joy Phumaphi. The other members are Dr Carmen Barosso; Prof Zulfiqar Bhutto; Prof Dean Jamison; Prof Marleen Temmerman; and Prof Miriam Were.