Indonesia at CSW67
CLAN engaged in events relating to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 67th (CSW67) Session to support the work of the @MATES4Kids (Maximising Access to Essential Supplies for Kids) movement. The CSW67 Priority theme was ‘Innovation and technological change and education in the digital age, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’. The Review theme was ‘Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls’. CLAN’s parallel event at the conference highlighted the urgent need to scale NBS as part of a comprehensive and strategic approach to achieving the goals of @MATES4Kids.
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CLAN was proud to host a hybrid Parallel Event for the Commission on the Status of Women 67th Session at the United Nations Church Centre on the 6th of March 2023, and partner with global changemakers to discuss the role of NBS in driving gender equity in the contemporary technological age. CLAN’s Parallel NGO Event was entitled ‘Newborn Screening: Responding to the Urgent Need to Leverage Existing Technology for Gender Equality’. The event brought together experts from around the world to highlight the importance of scaling NBS to achieve the SDGs and reduce gender inequalities affecting young girls with NCDs in resource-poor settings. Speakers from Australia, Austria, Indonesia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and the United States of America participated, representing a broad range of NGOs and organisations working in the field of NBS and caring for children living with NCDs.
The event began with a welcome by United Nations Youth Representative, Nikki Pasterczyk, and an introduction to CLAN by Ms Sofia Rousseau. With thanks to CARES Foundation, we began the event with a success story of NBS, from the mother of a child with CAH who achieved diagnosis through NBS. CLAN's President and Co-Chair of @MATES4Kids, Dr. Kate Armstrong, then shared about the coalition’s mission, vision, and relationship to NBS.
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The next segment of the event involved keynote speakers to discuss the efforts to scale NBS currently taking place in Indonesia. The first speaker, the Honourable Mr Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister for Health for Indonesia shared the bold vision for Indonesia to expand NBS across the Archipelago region, justified by the burden of disease arising from a lack of screening for conditions like CAH and the demonstrated positive outcomes associated with improved NBS. Following this, Professor Dr Aman Pulungan from the International Paediatric Association shared how NBS will reduce mortality and achieve the SDGs, by contrasting the distribution of both CAH and NBS coverage across regions and reflecting on the results of an Indonesian cross-sectional multi-section study of NBS. Professor Aman explored the need for scaling NBS, including the outcomes of inaccessibility of NBS, and highlighting obstacles facing the scaling of NBS in specific regions. CLAN Intern Fatima Idaayen then discussed why NBS is so important for achieving gender equity, reflecting on the inequitable burdens of congenital disorders upon girls and female caregivers, and sharing the results of interviews with 40 Indonesian families and their concerns arising from late diagnosis of CAH. To wrap up this section, CLAN Intern and current member of the @MATES4Kids Secretariat Emma Santini analysed the cost-effectiveness of NBS, highlighting the need for economic analyses to promote policy-making discussions.
The @MATES4Kids network in Indonesia demonstrated both the importance of high-level advocacy as well as the multifaceted ways to strengthen NBS.