WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, June 25, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah, with co-hosts the Governments of Ethiopia and India, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners, will host Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths. The forum will unveil new efforts to save an unprecedented number of women and children by 2020 in 24 priority countries. It will also announce adoption of bold reforms to improve effectiveness and efficiency at the Agency. 

Acting on the Call will feature high-ranking U.S. government officials; UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; World Bank Group President Dr. Jim Yong Kim; The Honourable Christian Paradis, Canada's Minister of International Development and La Francophonie; global maternal health advocate Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA; Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO, GAVI Alliance; the Honorable Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF; Mark Suzman, President of Global Policy, Advocacy, and Country Programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; UN Special Envoy Ray Chambers; as well as members of Congress and Ministers of Health from a number of nations.

An important touchstone since the first Call to Action in 2012, this forum will gather global health leaders from governments, faith-based organizations, civil societies and the private sector to review recent and significant accomplishments aimed at significantly reducing child and maternal deaths, and to plot a new course that will ensure progress continues.

Dr. Shah and partners will also award major public and private sector partnerships and announce a new $500 million award focused on child survival and maternal health.

The event will take place at the Ronald Reagan Building, Atrium Hall.

For more information, please visit: http://www.usaid.gov/event-details