Legislators urged to advocate for women, children and adolescents
World Health Organisation (WHO) assistant director of family, women, children and adolescents, Princess Nothemba Simelela, has asked parliamentarians globally to advocate for the rights of women, children and adolescents.
She made the call at the 2018 Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) Forum in New Delhi, India on Thursday when she spoke on parliamentarians’ role in holding governments to account for commitments to achieve women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and in taking actions in areas of legislation, accountability, budgets and advocacy.
Simelela said parliamentarians represent their constituents and, as such, they must not leave behind women, children and adolescents in their work.
Speaking earlier on the role of women in political leadership, Dedza East legislator Juliana Lunguzi said being a parliamentarian, a woman and a nurse has allowed her to advocate for the health and well-being of Malawian women, children and adolescents by taking government to task on several issues.
She said: “I remember when government wanted to change the location of Malawi’s National Cancer Centre from Lilongwe to Blantyre.
As chairperson of the Parliamentary Health Committee, I stood together with others to protest this move because I know how important it is to have the hospital at a central location where it will be easily accessible to all Malawians, women especially, as we have many cases of cervical cancer.”
The two-day Partners’ Forum, co-hosted by the PMNCH and the Government of India, provided a platform for several female parliamentarians from across the globe to discuss how they engage governments on maternal and child health issues. n
