supporting specific initiatives especially at regional and global level, which strengthen health systems and help countries develop and implement sound, evidence-based and sustainable national health policies, and in priority areas such as child and maternal health, including immunisation and response to global health threats (such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and other poverty-related and neglected diseases).

The development cooperation of the EU Member States in the area of maternal and child health is guided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the ‘International Conference on Population and Development’ Programme of Action.

They should usually involve an important nutritional dimension, particularly assisting those for whom appropriate nutrition will have positive effects on the achievements of MDGs 4 (reducing child mortality) and 5 (improving maternal health).

increasing access to and provision of health services for lower income population groups and marginalised groups, including women and children, persons belonging to groups subject to ethnic, religious or any other discrimination and persons with disabilities, with a central focus on the related MDGs, namely reducing child mortality, improving maternal and child health and sexual and reproductive health and rights as set out in the Cairo Agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), addressing poverty diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria;

[9] In 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted the Millennium Declaration, which embodies eight Millennium Development Goals: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, (2) Achieve universal primary education, (3) Promote gender equality and empower women, (4) Reduce child mortality, (5) Improve maternal health, (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, (7) Ensure environmental sustainability, and (8) Develop a Global Partnership for Development

The EU should give priority to the elimination of illiteracy especially among girls and the promotion of their equal access to education, to investment in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in order to combat HIV/AIDS pandemic, to the reduction of maternal and child mortality, and to the participation of women in conflict prevention, peace building and reconstruction .