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Access to family planning is an essential human right that unlocks unprecedented rewards for economic development, says new UNFPA report

• 222 million women in developing countries have an unmet need for family planning
• Additional $4.1 billion in funding is needed to address current needs and those of the growing youth population

LONDON, 14 November 2012—Making voluntary family planning available to everyone in developing countries would reduce costs for maternal and newborn health care by $11.3 billion annually, according to The State of World Population 2012, published today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Read more...

Originally posted on PATH

New PATH report offers global agenda to increase quality, availability of medicines

Where a woman gives birth should not decide her fate, especially when affordable, effective medicines exist to treat and prevent the leading causes of maternal deaths. A new report from PATH, Safeguarding pregnant women with essential medicines, offers a targeted agenda for global and national decision-makers to increase the quality and availability of three maternal health medicines that address excessive bleeding after childbirth and high blood pressure during pregnancy. Read more...

New York, USA, 24 October 2012 – The seventh annual World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2012 ranks Nordic countries in top spots, with Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden having closed over 80% of their gender gaps. At the bottom of the ranking, some countries still need to close gender gaps of almost 50%, while more than half of those countries surveyed have failed to close their economic gender gap by more than 5% in the past seven years. Read more...

Last week in Brussels, the European Development Days 2012 convened nearly 6,000 participants and 1,500 organizations from the development community to address the theme of “Sustainable and Inclusive Growth for Human Development” through a series of sessions and meetings. At the event, a high-level panel was organized by Action for Global Health (AfGH), Countdown 2015 Europe, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), UNAIDS, and the Oxfam International European Union Office. The panelists of this meeting examined the role, strategies, actions and challenges of the European Union (EU) in implementing the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Read more...