At a two-day workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa on 3 and 4 March, a key cross-sectoral group of close to 60 stakeholders came together to begin the task of planning around the development of a one-two year roadmap for implementation of the Unified Accountability Framework (UAF) for the Global Strategy.
Since the launch of the Global Strategy in September 2015 alongside the final report of the Independent Expert Review Group and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global health community has moved quickly to establish a new approach to accountability. Among the numerous actions the community has taken is the recent agreement by Partnership’s Executive Committee of the draft Drive Accountability roadmap to deliver the accountability component of the Partnership’s 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. This roadmap includes the Partnership’s role to coordinate the UAF. The UAF aims to “establish a clear structure and system to strengthen accountability at the country, regional and global levels and between different sectors” and is a key element of the Every Woman Every Child architecture
The workshop, led by the Partnership with the support of the Government of Canada and Norway along with WHO and Every Woman Every Child, had three objectives. These objectives were to identify 3-5 collective multi-stakeholder priorities for the UAF in 2016.17; agree global coordination mechanisms for the UAF and the role of the Partnership’s Secretariat; and provide feedback on the draft Global Strategy monitoring framework and the Global Financing Facility indicators. The workshop, also focused on the development of the workplan for the Partnership’s Strategic Objective 2: Drive Accountability and on the immediate priorities of the UAF overall.
Robin Gorna, the Executive-Director of the Partnership, told stakeholder that the Global Strategy and SDGs set important new expectations about how we work together, i.e. no longer in silos but a broad range of players coming together. She stressed the importance of grounding action in countries, but also ensuring that all other 7 constituencies of the Partnership play their role. She also noted the new dimension of the Global Strategy–adolescent and youth—presented a new opportunity to think about what it means to deliver the Global Strategy with them and for them.
A comprehensive workshop report will be developed on agreed priorities, areas requiring further action and a roadmap with roles and responsibilities.
Quotes from the workshop
- “Let’s talk about what it means to be unified.”
Robin Gorna, The Partnership
On Accountability
- “This is a new chapter for accountability and WHO is thrilled that this work is continuing.“
Flavia Bustreo, The World Health Organization - “The Partnership is a key partner to drive accountability and to align stakeholders around the Global Strategy.”
Nana Kuo, Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General - “We need to make a proactive effort to take accountability out of the clouds; it now has to come to flesh and blood.”
Sania Nishtar, IAP Chair - “Equity focus has to remain strong in accountability mechanisms, we need disaggregated analysis.”
Geeta Rao Gupta, UNICEF - “It is critical for accountability to have full ownership from the highest political level.”
Neema Rusibamayila, Tanzania - “ IAP –the report you will submit will be the centre piece for accountability within this whole community. You have a unique opportunity to enable us all to course correct.”
Katie Taylor, USAID - “Accountability is not about pointing fingers but about taking corrective action.”
John Borazzo, USAID
On constituencies & cross-sectoral collaboration
- “Institutionalising citizen-led accountability needs to be embedded, recognised and supported.”
Betsy McCallon, White Ribbon Alliance - “The Private sector shouldn’t be the only one who is talking about accountability for the private sector, it should be owned by everyone.”
Farouk Shamas Jiwa, Merck - “Allow adolescents and youth &Y to have access to power.”
Yemurai Nyoni, Bulawayo Youth Development Organisation - CSO engagement should be on the table at all discussions – not just country and global, but also regional”.
Aminu Garba, Africa Health Budget - “How do we change the rules – we have to be disruptive if we are going to meaningfully involve adolescents – this largest cohort in history that has such a stake in this agenda.”
Tim Thomas, Gates Foundation - “Development isn’t for the people, it is with the people.”
Neema Rusibamayila, Tanzania - “Civil Society needs to be invited in to the conversation rather than knocking on the door.”
Kate Eardley, World Vision International - “One way to get other sectors to feel accountable to deliver health results is to ensure they are familiar with what we are trying to achieve. We need to ensure the Global Strategy has exposure in other sectors.”
John Borazzo, USAID - “Our mandate is health, but we know that health is not health alone; it involves other sectors.
Yoswa Dambisya, ECSA Health Community - On countries
- “Countries need to own accountability in terms of building our own systems, but we also need to build the capacity of countries.”
Neema Rusibamayila, Tanzania - “It is important that all stakeholders work together – all three levels of global, regional and country are intricately interconnected – no level can stand on its own without the other.”
Innocent Nuwagira, WHO AFRO - “For more than 5 years after the MDGs were announced countries were not aware of them. We now need to widely disseminate the SDGs and Global Strategy with countries – this is a big need.”
Medessi Yves Armand Mongbo, WAHO - “We need investments in country systems to collect data, routine systems and boost financing.”
Helga Fogstad, NORAD - “We need to have the political will to walk the walk at the local level – this goes beyond signing a global commitment.”
Lola Dare, CHESTRAD
On data for accountability
- “The importance of harmonising data has been on the agenda for decades – we need to ask ourselves why is this so difficult to do?”
Julian Schweitzer - “I am enormously excited and challenged by this current work around accountability and data. It both makes my job more challenging – hopefully by the end of this we as donors will be under greater scrutiny. But it also makes my job easier – I hope it will provide more data and show how money is being spent to save lives”.
Gillian Mann, DFID
On communications and media
- “We made a mistake during the MDGs as we didn’t involve media, we need to correct that this time around for SDGs.”
Kenneth Simbaya, The Guardian, Tanzania - “We will fail if we stay in our comfort zone. If you want to remove people from their comfort zone, use the media – we know how to disrupt people.”
Kenneth Simbaya, The Guardian, Tanzania - “We need communication resources that are useful for the media, for adolescents and that my Grandmother might be able to understand.”
Kate Eardley, World Vision International - “How do we communicate, to whom do we communicate and how are we involving young people in this conversation -they are the ones who will inherit all of this.”
Tim Thomas, Gates Foundation
- “Countries need to own accountability in terms of building our own systems, but we also need to build the capacity of countries.”
- Originally published in PMNCH
