Chinese Delegation Attends High-Level Meeting on Women and Children Issues

The opening ceremony of ahigh-level meeting of the“Every Woman Every Child”global movement was hosted by the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General at the UN headquarters in New York on September 26， 2015， attended by about 600 delegates. The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC)attended to represent all Chinese organizations involved iri the movement.

Chinese government and business representatives， including President Xi Jinping’s wife Peng Liyuan， who is the World Health Organization (WHO)’s goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS， Ms. Li Xiaolin， presi-dent of the CPAFFC， and Mr. Wang Chuanfu， chairman of the BYD Co.， Ltd. They addressed the meet-ing， announcing that China would gather forces from govemment de-partments， enterprises and social organizations to support the Global Strategy for Women， Children and Adolescent Health.

On September 22， 2010， UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon initiated the Global Strategy for Women’s， Children’s and Adoles-cents’Health， ained at improving the health of women and children worldwide and reducing the ma-ternal mortality rate and that of thechildren under five years of age. Later in the year， based on this strategy， he launched the“Every Woman Every Child”global movement， urging gov-emments， civil societies and the private sector to join hands with the UN to contribute to the health and well-be-ing of women and children across the world.

Peng Liyuan addressed the open-ing ceremony in English. In her speech entitled“Care about the Weak， Let them Share a Healthy Life”， she pas-sionately talked about her own working experience of assisting AIDS victims and AIDS orphans as the World Health Organization (WHO)’s goodwill am-bassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and said that caring for the health of women， children and adolescents was the most important investment in humankind’s future.

Peng expressed her thanks to Ban Ki-moon for launching the“Ev-ery Woman Every Child”strategy mobilizing people from all sectors of the international conununity， saying it was a great job for promoting the vital cause. China would work closely with the UN， WHO， UNAIDS， UNICEF and UN Women and give full support for the implementation of the Global Strat-egy.

On behalf of the CPAFFC， Ms. Li Xiaolin expressed appreciation of the achievements of the“Every WomanEvery Child”in the past five years，conveyed her congratulations on its universal recognition， highlighted the new promises made by the Chinese Govermnent and formally declared the establishment of the China Partnership Network to echo Mr. Ban’s appeal for the establishment of sustainable cross-sectoral modes of cooperation with wide participation， including govern-ment， businesses and social organiza-tions.

The China Partnership Network rallies elites from the Chinese Govern-ment， academic institutions， businesses and social organizations， including but not limited to Tsinghua Univer-sity， China Taiping Insurance Group，BYD Co.， Ltd， Chia Tai Group， Letv，China Development Research Founda-tion， China Red Ribbon Foundation，and China Chamber of Conunerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products. These first China Part-nership Network members will invest or donate US$290 million to support projects on the health of women and children. Besides， the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is offer- ing policy and technical guidance. The All-China Women’s Federation serves as special adviser.

On behalf of the China Partner-ship Network members， Mr. Wang Chuanfu， chairman of BYD， an-nounced a donation of US$100 mil-lion to remote areas in China and elsewhere， which would be used to provide solar energy and micro-grid solutions for health and education fa-cilities in these areas.

The speeches made by the three Chinese delegates were interrupted repeatedly by applause. UN Secre-tary General Ban Ki-moon and manyother VIPs extended a warm welcome to China and acknowledged China’s active role and contribution in the implementation of the Global Strategy.The government officials， leaders of international organizations and civil societies and business leaders said that they would take concrete action to sup-port the China Partnership Network and hoped to cooperate with it and the CPAFFC in the future.

In the meeting， Secretary General Ban announced the decision to upgrade the Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health to the Global Strat- egy for Women， Children and Adoles-cent Health， in the hope to amass more resources from all relevant parties in partnerships so as to eliminate all the preventable maternal deaths and those of children under five.

Not long ago， some of China Partnership Network members had productive talks with the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments， agreeing on future cooperation in the health field. In the future， it will participate in the cooperation between China and the rest of the world in the field of women and child health by integrating members’resources and advantages through sustainable and innovative commitment.

Besides， members will share the progress and experience to make sub-stantial contribution to the develop-ment of the health of women and chil-dren throughout the world. Meanwhile，the Network will help people from all sectors of Chinese society to leam the experiences and advanced technologies from other countries so as to enhance implementation of the Global Strategy in China.