2016: Old Challenges, New HopesThis is the inaugural report of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel (IAP), which tracks accountability for the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health 2016–2030.The Global Strategy was launched in September 2015 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, to help further the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals Agenda, which he appointed an Independent Accountability Panel to track. The strategy is a roadmap for ending all preventable deaths in women, children and adolescents within a generation and ensuring their well-being.This one-year-on report calls for stronger UN leadership and more robust national institutions, including legal mechanisms and citizen participation, to ensure effective implementation of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health and the realisation of women’s human and reproductive rights.It highlights the persisting discrimination and inequalities in access to health services that women, adolescents and children encounter. It notes the importance of coupling legal accountability mechanisms with systematic monitoring and independent review to identify problems in access to health services and ensure concrete action is taken and change is made – specifically noting that “to transform the conditions that drive ill-health and mortality, accountability cannot be an afterthought”.