Opening Plenary

Welcome Remarks, Keynote Presentation, & Opening Plenaries

Welcome Remarks and Keynote Presentation

At Day One of the Opening Forum, Dr. Anshu Banerjee provided welcome remarks and Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng set us up for the day’s events. Dr. Queen Dube, AlignMNH Keynote Presenter, set the stage for two impactful days of knowledge sharing.

Road to 2030: New Challenges and New Opportunities to Accelerate Progress for Maternal and Newborn Health

The opening plenary featured a data-driven dialogue focused on the mother-baby dyad. Panelists spoke to the importance of global, national, and subnational data to track and review progress, emphasizing the critical need for the maternal and newborn health (MNH) communities to come together to accelerate progress, as well as highlighting the critical need to prioritize and sustain MNH services in the face of COVID-19. The role of midwives was in sharp focus as the panel explored the cost of not aligning the MNH communities. True to the forum’s focus on evidence, the panel discussion included a presentation and distillation of data from Countdown 2030 and the World Health Organization.

Moderator: Zoë Mullan, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Global Health





Hon. Minister Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin
Dr. Franka Cadée
Dr. Ties Boerma

Panelists include: 
Dr. Ties Boerma, Professor, University of Manitoba

Dr. Franka Cadée
President, International Confederation of Midwives

Hon. Minister Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin
Minister of Health, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia

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