The Maternal Health Task Force has been working with the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Global Health Initiative and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to create a series of events on Advancing Policy Dialogue on Maternal Health. The first event will occur next month on December 3 from 12PM to 2PM in Washington D.C. at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The topic is the integration of HIV/AIDS and maternal health services. We encourage you to attend. If you are unable to attend the event in person, a live webcast will be broadcasted (and archived for later viewing) at www.wilsoncenter.org.
Updates
Fighting Maternal Mortality: Focusing on Vulnerable Groups
November 13th, 2009
At a high-level UN meeting in Istanbul, participants discussed how maternal mortality rates have been cut in half in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. However, according to a UNFPA progress report, many women in vulnerable groups remain at risk. In response, decision-makers and government officials from 20 countries attending the UNFPA meeting in Istanbul pledged to step up the fight against needless deaths and suffering resulting from pregnancy and childbirth.
Health Systems are Failing the World’s Women
November 9th, 2009
Geneva, Switzerland- Despite progress, health system shortfalls and gender discrimination are severely impacting women’s health worldwide, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) report Women and Health: Today’s Evidence, Tomorrow’s Agenda, which was released earlier this week.
Announcement: Major Conferences to Be Held in 2010
November 9th, 2009
Four major conferences in 2010 are sure to attract the attention of global health policymakers, practitioners and advocates during a year likely to be significant in the international development calendar, as it will be five years before several major targets come due in 2015. Each conference comprises a distinct component of an evolving continuum of knowledge dissemination; each making the case for investing in the health of women, children and newborns in their own complementary way.
Afghanistan Trains New Midwives
November 9th, 2009
This weekend, the Christian Science Monitor published an article called, “Amid war Afghanistan trains thousands of new midwives.” The article says:
Pashtoon Azfar, head of the Afghan Midwives Association, says the number of trained midwives has grown nearly six-fold since rebuilding effort in Afghanistan began. “In 2002, we had 467 midwives, but no one knew how qualified they were; for years, they had received no access to training,” says Ms. Azfar, also a midwifery specialist with the international nonprofit health organization Jhpiego, whose maternal health programs are funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Today, there are more than 2,400 midwives around the country who have been trained in a standardized and accredited two-year program, she says.