TY - JOUR T1 - Parliaments lead the change for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health: what have we learnt? JF - BMJ Global Health JO - BMJ Global Health DO - 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003615 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - e003615 AU - Kadidiatou Toure AU - Gabriela Cuevas AU - Rachael Hinton AU - David Imbago AU - Ulrika Karlsson AU - Cecilia Rocco AU - Miriam Sangiorgio AU - Diana Nsubuga AU - Martin Chungong AU - Helga Fogstad AU - Flavia Bustreo Y1 - 2021/02/01 UR - http://gh.bmj.com/content/6/2/e003615.abstract N2 - Summary boxLeadership, gender, multistakeholder partnerships and social accountability facilitate parliamentary action for improved women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (WCAH) outcomes.Governments and development partners should increase predictable, long-term and flexible funding to support and enhance parliamentary action for WCAH.Multistakeholder partnerships operating at all levels should include parliamentarians and consider parliamentary perspectives, with a view to facilitating and supporting their action for WCAH.Advocacy through parliamentary caucuses should be reinforced, and formal parliamentary institutions should be supported to be more responsive to the needs of women, children and adolescents.Parliaments must be supported to increase female representation, while ensuring that women members are informed, capacitated, and supported to address WCAH issues.Support for parliamentary action must be accompanied by efforts to inform and empower communities to demand their rights, and to give voice to affected communities, including through the use of digital information and communication technologies.The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (WCAH) (2016–2030) recognises that parliaments and parliamentarians play an important role in improving WCAH.1 Parliamentarians enact legislation and approve budgets, including allocation of resources to priority areas. They also provide oversight to ensure government accountability and transparency and foster the participation of constituencies in policy discourse.2Over the past decade, parliamentarians have increasingly prioritised WCAH3 4 in the context of achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.5 More and more development partners are also engaging parliamentarians to support informed decision making, resource allocation and to increase accountability for improved health at all levels.6 Recent publications document parliamentary action for improved health, for example, by passing legislation for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR),7 mental health8 and health coverage for the most vulnerable.9 Increased representation of women in parliaments is known to improve maternal and child … ER -