ICRW’s Suzanne Petroni Participates in United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Health and Mortality

Suzanne Petroni, Senior Director, Gender, Population and Development at ICRW, advised on the vital need to improve the health of women and adolescents, at the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on “Priorities for Improved Survival: ICPD Beyond 2014” on October 21-22 in New York.

The Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), adopted in Cairo in 1994, is a landmark document that affirmed the inextricable linkages between population, development, and human rights. A total of 179 governments signed on to the ICPD Program of Action to deliver human-rights based development.

With the 20-year implementation period coming to a close, member states decided to extend the Program of Action beyond 2014 and ensure its follow-up in order to fully meet its goals and objectives.

The meeting brought together leading experts on health and mortality in order to assess progress toward the goals set out in the ICPD Program of Action, and to discuss challenges to reductions in mortality in the post-2015 development agenda.

“This meeting presented an important opportunity to explore how trends in women’s health and mortality are changing – and how those changes demand shifts in setting global priorities for the next 20 years and beyond,” said Petroni. “It was an honor to be part of this meeting that will help ensure that the post-2015 development agenda effectively responds to adolescents’ and women’s most pressing needs today.”

The experts invited to this meeting contributed “evidence-based think pieces” on how to reduce mortality around the world beyond 2014. Petroni presented her paper published by the United Nations, which is co-authored with Katherine Fritz, Director, Global Health at ICRW, “Improving the Health of Women and Adolescents: An Unfinished Agenda.” 

For more information on the meeting, visit: http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/expert-group/20/index.shtml