Resources to deal with the pandemic are often diverted from women’s health services, with lasting effects on their children, their families, and their economies.

We call for multi-stakeholder partnerships that allow women, children and adolescents to take part in decisions that profoundly affect their health and wellbeing.

A hopeful precedent: global co-operation in peacetime

As the open letter says, if COVID-19 remains in any country, it will re-emerge and prolong this economic and health crisis.

Para 2, ‘A recent study in the Lancet…’ – Roberton T, Carter ED, Chou VB, Stegmuller AR, Jackson BD, Tam Y, Sawadogo-Lewis T, Walker N. Early estimates of the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and child mortality in low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study.

Para 3, ‘Child death rates have almost halved…’ – 4, ‘Resources to deal with the pandemic are diverted from women’s health services…’ – 5, ‘…in Sierra Leone, more than 3,500 people died of Ebola…’ –

Para 5, ‘…an estimated 3,600 mothers and babies died…’ –

Para 6, ‘…the Guttmacher Institute warns…’ –

Para 7, ‘… between 42 and 66 million children will fall into extreme poverty …’ – ‘Impact of COVID on Children’ –