Devex: Large returns from small investments in women’s, children’s health
Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund

“…The Global Investment Framework for Women’s and Children’s Health — supported by the U.N. Population Fund, the World Health Organization and other partners — shows that small investments in women’s and children’s health will yield a large return. By making the additional investments needed for life-saving interventions, it would be possible to not only avoid unnecessary deaths, but also have healthier, more productive individuals, communities and countries. … UNFPA is calling for a youth goal to be included in the coming post-2015 development agenda. The scale of the opportunity for a more robust kind of engagement with adolescents is stupendous, and critically so because the dimensions of its personal, social and economic costs otherwise are great and yet avoidable. …We need to give adolescents the choices and tools to fully participate in development, to stay in a safe course from childhood to adulthood, realize their potential, and contribute to their societies…” (1/15).