June 2012

Rio+20 Advocacy Toolkit

“That is why we launched Every Woman Every Child. This is a concrete strategy to promote opportunity and advance economic growth and the social well-being of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. Because to invest in health is to invest in people. And because investing in people — particularly women and children — is the best and fastest way to create the future we want. Tonight, I want to report that this initiative is making a big difference, very quickly. Many Governments, businesses and NGOs are involved — working together. Like I do, they see every woman and every child as key to realizing the Millennium Development Goals. And why? Because they put people first. They focus on advancing the well-being of individuals — and that makes all the difference.”

- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, remarks at event hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea 16 May 2012.

Background

The UN Conference on , or “Rio+20”, will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 20-22, 2012, 20 years after the historic 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development. “Sustainable development”, by definition, integrates economic, social and environmental issues.

Promoting women’s and children’s health is a cornerstone of creating a sustainable, stable and prosperous future, and robust sustainable development policies that take into account the health of women and children are urgently needed to ensure that we can meet the goals of the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

To make real and lasting change, we must strive to reduce , improve health and education and achieve – with an emphasis on equity and reaching the world’s most vulnerable, including women and children. Investing in their health will reduce child and maternal mortality, slow growth and break vicious cycles of poverty.

This document is meant to serve an advocacy toolkit with background on Rio+20, partner activity, knowledge summaries and messaging, and information on side events.

Key Messages

The following are suggested messages for Every Woman Every Child partners to utilize in the context of Rio+20, based upon publications, speeches, fact sheets and submissions to the negotiation process by UN agencies and partners (available below).

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1 June 2012

People must be at the center of sustainable development

 The world has over 7 billion inhabitants; a figure that could reach over 9 billion by 2050. Principle 1 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development affirms that “Human beings are at the center of concerns for sustainable development”. Now, more than ever, it is critical for the global community to pursue a people-centered development approach to ensure a sustainable future.

 Taking a rights-based approach to sustainable development, as agreed in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, is essential for the health and prosperity of our future generations. To make real and lasting change, we must strive to reduce poverty, improve health and education and achieve gender equality – with an emphasis on equity and reaching the world’s most vulnerable, including women and children.

 Investing in the health and education of women and children will reduce child and maternal mortality, slow and break vicious cycles of poverty.

Healthy women and children are agents of sustainable development

 Principle 20 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development affirms that “women have a vital role in environmental management and development. Their full participation is therefore essential to achieve sustainable development.” Furthermore, many women in developing countries are the primary users of water, food, land and other natural resources. For them to become powerful agents of change – for economic, social and environmental development – they must be empowered and healthy, two critical components of a more sustainable future.

 The empowerment of women and girls is not only an important goal in its own right – it is also a critical component of sustainable development. When women thrive, there is an economic ripple effect across entire families, communities and nations.

 Education is one of the most important long-term investments for greater prosperity. With half of the world’s population under the age of 25, educating youth is crucial to ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future. Girls who have access to education tend to marry later and have fewer children, protecting their health and enabling them to fulfill their potential.

 Promoting women’s health, and the health of their children, is a cornerstone of creating a sustainable, stable and prosperous future. Research shows that healthy women work more productively, and spend more money on food, housing, education and income-generating activities,

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all of which reduce poverty levels and promote sustainable development, including greater national productivity and higher GDP.

 Efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) – reducing maternal mortality and ensuring universal access to and – allow women to take control of their future and the future of their families.

 Ensuring universal access to family planning for the 215 million women around the world who want, but do not have access to, modern contraception, is not only essential for reducing child and maternal mortality, but also allows women to have smaller families, if they so choose. This, in turn, promotes human development and wellbeing, and lessens the collective global strain on our vital natural resources such as water, land and food. If all women had access to family planning who wanted it we would avert 53 million unwanted pregnancies, 640,000 newborn deaths and 150,000 maternal deaths.

 Measuring, tracking and reporting on women’s and children’s health, including the 11 indicators outlined by the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, is essential not only for improved health outcomes, but measuring progress across the pillars of sustainable development, including poverty reduction.

Sustainable development drives women’s and children’s health and the goals of the Global Strategy

 Robust sustainable development policies that take into account the health of women and children are urgently needed to ensure that we can meet the goals of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health

 Every Woman Every Child puts into action the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which presents a roadmap on how to enhance financing, strengthen policy and improve service on the ground for the most vulnerable women and children. The movement has brought together key actors under one umbrella and integrated their objectives and programs into one coherent approach to advance MDGs 4 and 5, related to children’s and maternal health, respectively.

 To date, partners have made over 200 commitments, which will ensure more health and sustainability for the money, through better and more focused use of all available resources. They also represent more money for health and sustainability, taking a major step towards filling the gap between the investment needed and what is currently provided for women's and children's health – with an estimated US$40 billion in funding already committed over the next five years.

Energy

 3 billion people around the world currently use wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste to cook and heat their homes, exposing themselves and their families to harmful emissions and causing 2 million premature deaths per year – with women and girls the most affected.

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 Exposure to smoke from traditional cookstoves can cause pneumonia, an acute respiratory infection that affects the lungs, is the leading cause of death of children under 5, and kills an estimated 1.4 million children per year – more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

 Achieving the goals of the Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, including access to clean, renewable energy sources through solutions such as the use of clean cookstoves, will improve women’s and children’s health, empowerment, education, literacy, and nutrition, all of which will contribute to a more sustainable future for themselves and their families.

 Improving access to energy, specifically electricity, is essential for reducing maternal mortality rates, as it allows for the provision of health care services in clinics, storage of vaccines and medication, and illumination of roads so women can safely access health facilities and services.

Water

 Sustainable access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation is essential for the basic health of women and children. Global efforts to advance sustainable development must include the education of women and children about sanitation and improve access to safe drinking water.

 Dirty water and inadequate sanitation cause diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, cholera and dysentery, especially among pregnant women, and diarrheal diseases are the second major killer of children, responsible for 15% of all under-5 deaths.

 Infectious diseases strike the world’s most vulnerable – those without access to clean water, basic sanitation, or healthcare – making it difficult for these communities to lift themselves out of poverty. In particular, one billion people worldwide – or one in seven – suffer from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which primarily affect poor people, especially women and children, in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Nine NTDs (human African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, leprosy, fascioliasis, and blinding trachoma) represent more than 90% of the global NTD burden. Currently, more than 500 million children live with these debilitating diseases, which keep them from attending school and reaching their full potential, while NTDs prevent millions of women from having successful pregnancies.

Food

 Agricultural productivity and , including targeted interventions to end hunger and child malnutrition, must be central components of a more sustainable future.

 One in 7 people – or 925 million people around the world – are undernourished, 60% of whom are women. In developing countries, one out of four children is underweight and 60% of all under-five deaths annually are caused by malnutrition and hunger.

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 Women account for nearly half of the agricultural work force in developing countries, but lack equal access to productive agricultural resources such as land, training, technology and credit. If women had the same access to agricultural resources as men, they would produce 20-30% more food, raise output in developing countries by 2.5-4% and reduce the number of hungry people globally by 12- 17%, helping themselves and their families enjoy enhanced nutrition, health and livelihoods. Healthy women are producers, agents of change and drivers of sustainable development.

Disasters

 Each year, an estimated 226 million people are affected by disasters, and women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men, making the protection of the environment essential for their health and safety.

 It is important to ensure that women’s and children’s health, including reproductive health, is a component of disaster preparedness plans in order to ensure their health and wellbeing is not forgotten in times of crisis.

Jobs

 Globally, 1.3 billion workers earn less than $2 a day and 190 million people are unemployed.

 Women’s unpaid work – farming, managing their homes, caring for their children and others – accounts for an estimated one-third of the world’s Gross National Product.

 Productive employment and decent jobs for women are essential for their empowerment and the health and stability of their families, making this a central component of sustainable development.

Cities

 828 million people currently live in slums, a number which is increasing, and it is estimated that 60% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2030.

 Clean, efficient cities, which include easily accessible healthcare facilities and services, are indispensable for the health, prosperity and wellbeing of future generations.

Oceans

 Over half of the world’s population lives near a coastline, making them vulnerable to rising sea levels resulting from global warming.

 To protect the health and livelihoods of people living near the ocean, particularly women and children, we must prevent environmental degradation as part of a more sustainable future.

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Post-2015 Development Agenda

 Given women’s indispensable role as agents of sustainable development, their health and empowerment must remain a central component of a post-2015 development framework and all future sustainable development policies must incorporate a gender perspective.

 In recent years, we have made tremendous progress toward improving the health and wellbeing of women and children around the world, but we cannot become complacent.

 We urgently need continued political will and financing to ensure that we build on the progress we have made and that we do not lose ground.

 Investing in women’s and children’s health is not only the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing to do to ensure a sustainable future for us all.

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Activity by Every Woman Every Child partners and leaders:

Relevant events

Youth Blast June 7-12 Event will prepare, educate and inform youth on the Rio+20 process and how they can engage

Corporate Sustainability Organized by UN Global Compact, will include a session June 18 with UN Women on the Forum June 15-18 Women’s Empowerment Principles and how businesses and partners can take action to promote the gender dimensions of corporate sustainability

“From Rio to Cairo to Rio… Organized by Population Action International (PAI) with African Institute for Development Policy and Beyond” June 16, 13:00- (AFIDEP) and Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), Accra, Ghana 15:00 Room T-9 (Riocentro)

Global Sustainability Organized by Government of Brazil, will engage approximately 18,000 members of civil society Dialogues June 16-19 and experts to seek innovative solutions on sustainability issues; each themed debate will generate recommendations to be presented to the four official roundtables during Rio+20; web debate will be launched through TeamWorks (facilitated by UNDP) to discuss the issues and vote on recommendations for each theme

“Population, Rights and Organized by Population and Climate Change Alliance (PCCA) with Marie Stopes International, Sustainability: Voices from Populating Action International (PAI) and several other partners the Global South” June 17 15:30-7:00 Room: P3-F

“mHealth: Mobile Workshop organized by the mHealth Alliance/ Foundation on “coordinating Technologies to Improve institutional work at the national level and integrating the work of different sectors and ministers” Health” June 17 4:00- 6:00pm Room: T-7 (Riocentro)

“Sustainability Revisited: Organized by The Aspen Institute, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Population, Reproductive United Nations Foundation on the links between reproductive health and environmental Health, & the Planet” sustainability; speakers include Joy Phumaphi, Mary Robinson and Musimbi Kanyoro June 18 11:30-13:00 Room P3-B (Riocentro)

“Healthy Women, Healthy Organized by Population Action International (PAI), Population and Climate Change Alliance Planet: Women’s (PCCA) and Management Systems for Health (MSH) Empowerment, Reproductive Health” June 18 13:15-14:45 Room UN2 (Barra Arena)

Women Leaders’ Forum on Organized by UN Women with Government of Brazil, will include an interactive multi-stakeholder the Future Women Want: exchange (including on post-2015) on June 19, followed by a Summit at the Head of State level Gender Equality and June 21 culminating in a “Call to Action” Women’s Empowerment for Sustainable Development

Rio+Social Partnership between the UN Foundation, Mashable, 92nd Street Y, Ericsson and EDP on social

7 June 2012

June 19 media and technology for sustainable development; UN speakers to include Michelle Bachelet (UN Women), Ertharin Cousin (WFP), Anthony Lake (UNICEF) and Helen Clark (UNDP)

“Youth Sexual and Population Action International (PAI), Advocates for Youth, Sierra Club Reproductive Health and Rights in the Context of Sustainable Development” June 19 13:15-14:45 Room UN2 (Barra Arena)

Health within the Green Organized by the American Cancer Society and NCD Alliance Economy: Multisectoral Frameworks for NCD Control & Sustainable Development June 19 13:30-15:00 Room P3-E (Riocentro)

“Health and Sustainable Organized by WHO and the Government of Brazil Ministry of Health and FIOCRUZ (National Development – Reinforcing School of Public Health); will discuss 1) Universal health coverage; 2) Health in the “green the Links” June 20 19:00- economy”; 3) Health as a measure of sustainable development achievements; measuring 20:30 Room T-9 (Riocentro) progress and impact; Margaret Chan (WHO) to speak

“A call for partnerships: Public Health Institute (PHI) with WFP, WHO, FAO, UNDP, Mary Robinson Foundation for integration of food and Climate Justice, IFAD and others; part of the Partnerships Forum in Riocentro; will launch a nutrition security, health and policy brief on the issues gender equality” June 20 4:30-6:00p Pavilion T (Major Groups Pavilion) Room T-3 (Riocentro)

Special Event on SG’s Expected to announce multi-stakeholder commitments to energy access, energy efficiency and Sustainable Energy for All renewable energy solutions Initiative June 21

Special Event on the Report Members of the High-level Panel will present the main recommendations made in their report to of the SG’s Global the SG Sustainability Panel June 21

MDG Advocates High-Level Will focus on youth as agents of change under the title of ““Sustainable Futures: Accelerating Panel June 21 Progress on the MDGs through Youth Innovations for ‘The Future We Want’”

“Dynamics of Rio: Population Organized by International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the Government of Women and Rights” June 22 Denmark with the Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA), the Bem-Estar Familiar no Brasil 11:00-12:30 Room T-8 (BENFAM) and the Population and Climate Change Alliance (PCCA) (Riocentro)

8 June 2012

Additional Resources

 “Population Dynamics and Sustainable Development”, Joint Submission by the United Nations Population Fund and the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 31 October 2011.  “The Centrality of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women for Sustainable Development”, Contribution to the Outcome Document UN Women, 01 November 2011.  “The Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health”, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, September 2010.  “Speech by Ms. Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director UN Women, on the Zero Draft of the Rio+20 Outcome Document”, New York, 25 January 2012.  “Access to Clean Energy Critical for Rural Women”, statement delivered by Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet, New York, 5 March 2012.  “Women Deliver Rio+20 Review and Strategy Meeting”, Draft Minutes, 21 March 2012.  “Keep People at the Centre of Development”, Statement of UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin at the IPU Assembly in Kampala, Uganda, 1 April 2012.  “Seven Billion People – Counting on Each Other”, UNFPA 7 Billion Actions Factsheet, July 2011.  “Taking points on family planning, population and the environment”, Friends of UNFPA.  “Powering Sustainable Energy for All”, Ban Ki-moon, New York Times, 11 January 2012.  “Sustainable Energy for All”, Fact Sheet, 2012.  “Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves”, One Page Quick Facts.  “Pneumonia”, Fact sheet N°311, October 2011.  “The Case for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals Through Access to Clean Electricity”, Global Energy Network Institute, November 2008.  “To Seriously Improve Global Health, Reinvent the Toilet”, Bloomberg, 8 April 2012.  “Levels & Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2011”, Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation”, 2011.  “Investing in our Common Future: Joint Action Plan for Women’s and Children’s Health”, Draft for consultation, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2010.  “The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11”, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, 2011.  “Pneumococcal Disease – Woodsmoke From Cooking Fires Linked to Pneumonia”, Star Global Tribune, 12 April 2012.  “Policy Brief: Sharing and Sustaining The Earth’s Resources”, Friends of UNFPA, February 2012.  “Scaling Up Nutrition: A Framework for Action”, David Nabarro, April 2010.  “Hunger Stats”, World Food Programme.  “The Future We Want”, social media messages, UN Department of Public Information.  “Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases: Ending the Neglect and Reaching 2020 Goals”  “Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development”, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992.  “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2010”, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank, 2012.  “United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Rio+20”, World Health Organization Executive Board, 130th Session, Agenda item 6.16, EB130/36, 19 January 2012.  Remarks by the Secretary-General, at an event hosted by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, New York, 16 May 2012.

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