Updates

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver; originally posted in The Globe and Mail, Canada

Almost one year ago exactly, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that maternal health would be the focus of the summer’s G8 summit. This was major news for those of us who had spent decades in the maternal health field, and was one more signal that 2010 would be a landmark year for our issues.

And from virtually every standpoint, it was. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver, originally published in The Citizen, Tanzania

In Geneva this week, a small group of global health leaders will meet to discuss the future of maternal health. I am looking forward to seeing President Kikwete there.

2010 was a landmark year for maternal health, from every standpoint. In July, the African Union renewed the Maputo Protocol, one of the most forward-thinking international charters on women’s rights.

New data showed that global maternal deaths are in decline, and a series of high-level meetings throughout the year signaled that the health of girls and women has at last become a global priority.

In September, the UN Secretary-General launched his $40 billion “Every Woman Every Child” plan to scale up women’s and children’s health services in developing countries. An accountability commission was appointed to help guide the plan’s implementation, emphasizing transparency and results. Read more...

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver  

Bordered by Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and the Gulf of Guinea, the West African country of Nigeria is the eighth most populous country in the world with a soaring maternal mortality rate.  As of 2008, the average maternal mortality rate was 840 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and up to 1,549 deaths per 100,000 live births in rural areas. These statistics gave the Nigerian government a stern wakeup call: too many women were dying during pregnancy and childbirth with a weak healthcare workforce to support them. In 2009, the Nigerian National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) took action to expand women’s access to skilled health care workers in rural and suburban regions with the Midwives Services Scheme (MSS). Read more...

In the January 2011 issue of Impact Magazine, former president of Ireland and human rights activist Mary Robinson is interviewed by Heather Kitt, a medical student and Global Changemaker. Click through to read an excerpt of the interview.