The Health Professionals Association (HCPA); FIGO, ICM and IPA, continue to be committed to the Global Strategy roadmap for ending all preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths, including stillbirths, by 2030 through action, increased dialogue and collaboration and advocacy.
The challenges women face in accessing quality of care and reproductive rights are not ‘obstetrician problems’, ‘midwife problems’ or ‘paediatrician problems’ they are major challenges we must tackle together. If we are to progress towards the 2030 Agenda, including the reduction of maternal and newborn mortality, we need to provide equitable access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health-care services. To be better equipped to provide the quality care that women want and need during the childbirth continuum we must work collaboratively in respectful and equal relationships, each recognising, understanding and valuing the contribution of the other.
As a coalition, we continue to work at the global level in alignment of Pillar 3 of the Global Strategy - Engagement and alignment of global stakeholders which is critical to ensuring effective and coherent support to countries, as well as strengthened accountability.
Together, our activities and programmes are closely aligned to the Global Strategy and support the objectives of survive, thrive and transform for every woman, child and adolescent, ensuring that no one is left behind.
We are each Board Members of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and we meet during these global meetings, as well as maintaining regular dialogue via email, video conferencing, collaborative events and webinars and face to face meetings.
During last year’s PMNCH meeting in Geneva, Helga Fogstadt indicated that a collaborative project between FIGO, ICM and IPA should be ramped up. In March, 2020 the organisations met to discuss future collaborations in terms of ‘respectful communication’ between the professions in different countries, including the potential of workshops, and have recently worked constructively together to support PMNCH in developing their strategy. In addition, FIGO, IPA and ICM have recently supported one another in the planning and delivery of webinar programmes, including appearing on one another’s webinars, designed to provide all health professionals with skills and resources to address maternal health during COVID-19 in their respective settings.
Our efforts also transfer to national levels through our programme activity and engagement of vast membership bases throughout the world. Central to our success has been to ensure that task sharing is central to our programme delivery in each programme country. FIGO has trained more than 8,000 midwives, nurses, health workers, doctors and delivery unit staff in the effort to institutionalise the practice of counselling on postpartum family planning, which has led to more than 630,000 women receiving PP FP counselling.
