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New Study Finds Little Progress in Meeting Demand for Contraception in the Poorest Countries

Women in Poorest Countries Who Want to Avoid Pregnancy Are Three Times as Likely to Have an Unmet Need for Modern Methods as Women in Higher-Income Developing Countries

A new study by the Guttmacher Institute finds that within the developing world, the poorest countries are lagging far behind higher-income developing countries in meeting the demand for modern contraception. Between 2003 and 2012, the total number of women wanting to avoid pregnancy and in need of contraception increased from 716 million to 867 million, with growth concentrated among women in the 69 poorest countries where modern method use was already very low. The study, "Trends in Contraceptive Need and Use in Developing Countries in 2003, 2008, 2012: An Analysis of National Surveys" by Jacqueline E. Darroch and Susheela Singh, is published in the latest issue of The Lancet. Read more...

Mothers: The Women Behind Today’s ‘Women in the World’

By: Adam Lewis, Rabin Martin; Originally posted on Rabin Martin

“We are agents of change, we are drivers of progress, we are makers of peace – all we need is a fighting chance.”

This quote from Hillary Clinton at the 2013 Newsweek/Daily Beast Women in the World summit certainly captured the theme of the conference. Of course, by “we,” the former Secretary of State is referring to women – and how fitting for someone who is herself an agent of change, a driver of progress and a maker of peace to call for more rights for women. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions: Daughters of Sex Workers Pave a New Path Ahead

By: Joanna Hoffman, Women Deliver

Sixteen-year old Aparna Bhola may be young, but she is also a confident, knowledgable teacher to the teenage girls that gather for her sex education class. She is a member of Kranti, an organization based in Nepal and India that provides women rescued from prostitution and their daughters with education and new opportunities. Her mother, Malti, was a sex worker, and often struggled to access medical treatment and better opportunities in the face of violence and discrimination. Malti’s story is not uncommon—in 2009, it was estimated that 3 million women are trafficked through India every year. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions:Safe Water and Toilets:The Foundation for Empowering Women

By: Nicole Wickenhauser, Water.org

What would your life be like if you had to walk 3.7 miles each day for water and wait for the cover of darkness to relieve yourself? It’s hard to even imagine. Yet this is today’s reality for millions of women and girls in developing countries around the world. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. Solutions are simanitation solutions. Read more...

Recognition for Empowering Women Leaders

By: Wedu

Wedu is one of the Women Deliver 25 finalists.

We’re so excited and honored to be in the Top 10 for the Women Deliver Global Solutions pitch competition because we truly believe in the power of women to catalyze change. We are Wedu, and we empower aspiring young leaders from rural areas of least developed countries through lifelong inspiring mentorship and innovative financial solutions to complete university.

Celebrate Solutions: Calcium Supplements to Save Women’s Lives

By: Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver

For pregnant women in Nepal, calcium is an important part of prenatal care that can save both mothers’ and babies’ lives. But too many women in developing countries, including Nepal, can’t afford to buy the expensive calcium supplements they need to prevent conditions like pre-eclampsia that can have life-threatening complications. Read more...

Women Deliver Highlights Social Enterprises That Improve the Health and Wellbeing of Girls and Women

For International Women’s Day, global online voters selected 10 inspiring start-up enterprises to compete in the Women Deliver Social Enterprise Challenge in May 2013

Global advocacy organization Women Deliver today announced the finalists of the Women Deliver 25, an online competition that features innovative social enterprises that benefit girls and women around the world. More than 13,500 votes were cast online to select ten organizations to receive scholarships to the Women Deliver 2013 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (May 28-30, 2013), where they will participate in the Women Deliver Social Enterprise Challenge. Read more...

A Panomaric View of Asia: Campaign hits newsstands today

Originally posted on PR Newswire

The second edition in Mediaplanet's "Investing in the Developing World" series hit newsstands in select markets of USA Today this morning, transporting readers to the Asian continent.

The "Investing in Asia" publication will traverse the human landscape of globalization, presenting a panorama of life on the continent.  With the support of CARE, Women Deliver, Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Water Missions International, Opportunity International, Mercy Corps, American Indian Foundation, Give2Asia, Management Sciences for Health, IntraHealth, Church World Service, Developments in Literacy, and International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, Mediaplanet will take readers on a journey from the valleys of the Hindu Kush to the peak of Mount Everest, from the haves to the have-nots, in order to portray the reality of life on the continent. Read more...

 

Celebrate Solutions: Stopping Gender-Based Violence in Vietnam

By: Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver

For too many women around the world, broken arms and bruised eyes are a part of daily life. Whether they are abused verbally or physically, by their husbands or even their mother-in-laws, these women live in constant fear and feel unable to escape. 

In Vietnam, where domestic violence is reportedly present in all areas of the country and across the social spectrum, the Improving Health Care Response to Gender-based Violence project was launched by the Center for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents and the Population Council, and financial support from the Ford Foundation. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions: Eliminating Acid Violence in Bangladesh

By: Yousra Yusuf, Women Deliver

In many countries around the world, gender-based violence is carried out through small vials of clear liquidsulfuric acid. “Acid attacks” are particularly prevalent in South-East and South Asia, and result in excruciating pain, burns, and often fatal complications. In Bangladesh, Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF)’s ongoing advocacy efforts have led to the passing of two laws aimed at preventing the practice, and the establishment of government-NGO partnerships to accelerate further progress.  This past year, they have been campaigning in support of the “Comprehensive Acid and Burn Crime Bill”, which would strengthen existing legislation criminalizing acid violence. Read more...

Women Deliver Opens Media Registration for Groundbreaking Conference on Girls and Women

Advocacy organization’s third triennial global conference in May 2013 will draw 5,000 policymakers, researchers and advocates to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

New York, NY, December 6, 2012—Media registration is now open for the Women Deliver 2013 conference, the largest meeting of the decade to focus on the health and empowerment of girls and women. This landmark event expects to draw 5,000 leaders and advocates to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from May 28-30, 2013. The 2013 conference, which will be hosted for the first time in Asia, follows Women Deliver’s historic conferences previously held in London in 2007 and Washington, D.C. in 2010. Read more...

APA releases “Engaging with ‘New’ ASEAN” Resource Kit

Asian Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (APA) has released the “Engaging with the ‘New’ ASEAN” report highlighting the need for civil society to collaborate with ASEAN members to improve reproductive and health rights of women and youth in the region. The report also provides an overview of the sexual and reproductive health trends in ASEAN countries and recommendations on opportunities for civic engagement. Read more...

Life Saver: Why Pacific Women Deserve Contraceptive Choice

By: Elissa Kennedy; Originally posted on The Conversation

World leaders, international donors, government officials from developing countries and civil society organisations gathered at the London Summit on Family Planning overnight to support the right of women and adolescent girls to freely decide the number and timing of their children.

Leaders from more than 20 developing countries made bold commitments and donors pledged US$2.6 billion over the next eight years to reach 120 million more women and adolescent girls with essential family planning services. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr showed his support earlier in the week with an editorial in The Lancet and committed to doubling Australia’s aid for family planning to more than $50 million a year by 2016. Read more...

Akshaya Tritiya: Hotbed of Child Marriages

By: Chaitra Arjunpuri; Originally posted on Al Jazeera

AlJazeera_AkshayaTritiya.jpgI am one of those unfortunate Hindu women whose hard lot is to suffer the unnameable miseries entailed by the custom of early marriage. This wicked practice of child marriage has destroyed the happiness of my life. It comes between me and the things which I prize above all others - study and mental cultivation. Without the least fault of mine, I am doomed to seclusion; every aspiration of mine to rise above my ignorant sisters is looked down upon with suspicion and is interpreted in the most uncharitable manner..."
- Extract from a letter written by a woman named Rukhmabai to The Times of India on June 26, 1885, reproduced in Child Marriage in India: Socio-legal and Human Rights Dimensions, by Jaya Sagade (Oxford University Press, 2005). Read more...

Corporate Buzz: Merck Joins Partners in ‘Saving Mothers, Giving Life’

By Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Merck for Mothers, an initiative of the pharmaceutical company Merck (known as MSD in some countries), will be joining forces with the United States Government, the Government of Norway, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Every Mother Counts campaign to target Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) – to reduce maternal mortality.

According to the United Nations MDG Report 2011, most maternal deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In 2008, maternal mortality in these regions was as great as 640 per 100,000 and 280 per 100,000 live births, respectively. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions: A Nepali Radio Show for ‘Mutual Understanding’

By Rati Bishnoi, Women Deliver

Every week, the Samajhdari or “Mutual Understanding” radio show creates a space for Nepali women to “speak out for themselves” and share their often “unspoken, internal dilemmas with one another,” says Programme Director Jaya Luintel. Read more...

The Guardian’s Development Journalism Competition Highlights Maternal Health

The Guardian newspaper has shortlisted three journalists for their coverage of how maternal, reproductive, and sexual health and rights shape the lives of girls and women and their communities as part of its fourth annual “International Development Journalism Competition.” Click through to learn more...

Celebrate Solutions: Community mobilization guide to improve the health of mothers and babies

By: Rachel Cernansky, winner of the Women Bloggers Deliver contest

bangladesh_mother_child.jpgThe infant mortality rate in India is estimated at about 39 deaths per 1,000 live births and nearly double that in rural areas --so it's notable when a new project results in a 45 percent drop in newborn deaths. That's precisely what has happened with a community mobilization effort in India and Bangladesh. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions: Reproductive Health for Women in the Workplace

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

HERproject.JPGAcross the developing world, women workers are a rising force in manufacturing industries, yet many of these women don’t have access to adequate healthcare or knowledge of their health-related rights in the workplace. The HERproject, founded by BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), is working to change that with a peer-driven health education initiative that focuses specifically on women workers in factories in Pakistan. Read more...

Celebrate Solutions: Reaching Female Refugees, the RAISE Project

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

Burma.JPGAccess to maternal health services is a challenge for many women in developing countries, but women in crisis settings are especially vulnerable to reproductive health risks and maternal health emergencies. Over 42 million people in the world are uprooted and living far from their home countries or regions for months or years at a time—almost half of them are women. Read more...

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