International Relations
Ramaphosa Calls for Urgent Action on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health at TICAD Summit
21 August 2025 | Yokohama, Japan
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged global leaders to place the health and rights of women, children, and adolescents at the centre of global development, warning that the cost of inaction would be counted in lives lost and futures diminished.
Speaking at the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and Global Leaders Network on Investing in Peace: Health for Adolescent Youth and Women session during the TICAD Summit, President Ramaphosa said the world had a moral obligation to end preventable deaths and guarantee universal access to quality health care.
“As the chair of the Global Leaders Network for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, alongside Ethiopia and Nigeria, I stand before you with the conviction that the health, dignity, and potential of women, children, and adolescents are the cornerstones of a fair, prosperous and peaceful world,” Ramaphosa said.
He painted a stark picture of the ongoing challenges, noting that too many women still die during childbirth and too many children and adolescents succumb to preventable diseases. “These are not inevitable tragedies,” he emphasised. “Every avoidable death is a policy and administrative failure; every life saved is the result of political will.”
Three Priorities for Global Action
Ramaphosa outlined three immediate priorities for the Global Leaders Network:
- Universal Health Coverage: Women, children, and adolescents must be at the heart of health system design and implementation, ensuring services are safe, effective, and responsive.
- Increased Investment: Governments must sustain and expand financing for health services, pursuing domestic resource mobilisation while also advancing multilateral funding solutions, including gap financing mechanisms to support vulnerable countries.
- Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights: Ramaphosa reaffirmed the right of every woman to make choices over her own body, access safe healthcare—including abortion services—and receive comprehensive sexual education.
A Call for Partnership
The President urged governments, civil society, the private sector, and development partners to work together to protect funding for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health, integrate health into climate and development strategies, invest in innovation and digital health solutions, and ensure accountability for results.
“The benefits of bold, coordinated action will build social and economic prosperity for generations,” Ramaphosa concluded. “Women, children, and adolescents must be our priority, for they represent the future we are all working to secure.”
The address was welcomed by development partners as a strong commitment to global solidarity in advancing health equity and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
