They announced their respective commitments at the three-day Summit of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25) which opened Nairobi, Kenya on Tuesday.

The private sector organisations said they would mobilise some eight billion dollars in combined pledges to achieve zero preventable maternal deaths, unmet needs for family planning, gender-based violence and harmful practices by 2030.

Although the pledged sums are tremendous, the contributions are not only financial, but also include innovative solutions, creativity and other resources.

The Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his opening remarks at the Summit, said the gathering was to celebrate the progress made in the last 25 years and make new commitments to complete the unfinished business of getting to a world which was safe and equal for all by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ms Mariarosa Cutillo, the Head of the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) Strategic Partnership Branch, said the private sector  then becomes indispensable to meeting the 'three Zeros' of the Nairobi Summit, which involves maternal mortality, unmet needs for family planning including safe abortion, and gender-based violence against women and girls.

She said the largest single contribution was from the World Vision, which promised to mobilise $7billion over the next decade in support of programmes that addressed maternal, child, newborn and adolescent health and nutrition.

This, she said was the World Vision's commitment to the UN Secretary-General's "Every Woman Every Child" campaign initiative.

Plan International, will also allocate $500 million to improve the Sexual and reproductive health and rights of girls and adolescents by 2025, while the Ford Foundation's commitment was to spend $78.4 million over the next three years to address gender-based violence and support women's empowerment.

Others include Laerdal's $65million pledged to reduce maternal and newborn mortality by 2030 and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation's commitment of $75million to advance self-care in sexual and reproductive health.

Additional private sector partners that announced technical commitments at the ongoing Nairobi Summit are Philips, Johnson and Johnson Foundation, Maternity Foundation, Bayer, MSD for Mothers, BD and the Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Brazil.

The ICPD25 is being co-hosted by the governments of Kenya and Denmark, the UNFPA and the UN Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency.

It aims to mobilise the political will and financial commitments urgently needed for full implementation of the Programme of Action agreed by the 179 governments in 1994 at the ICPD and confirm unanimously in a political declaration in 2019.