Updates

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

In Ghana, 350,000 women and 57,000 children under five die each year. Access to quality, comprehensive health care could have saved many of these lives.  In response, from 2005 – 2009, the Quality Health Partners project (QHP) was put in place to support efforts that were already under way in Ghana to ensure high quality reproductive and child health services. Read more...

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

A popular campaign that was conceived, developed, and implemented in Mexico is working to bridge divides between religion and rights using social media. In particular, the campaign works to inform the public debate on the role of the Catholic Church in Mexican society, in regards to Catholic teachings and human rights of women and youth, Church hierarchy and Catholic traditions. Read more...

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) acknowledged that governments should make information and services available to adolescents to increase awareness of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), including unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and risks of infertility. According to ICPD, this information should be youth-friendly, and involve multiple stakeholders from diverse sectors, at different levels of government. Read more...

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Of the 287,000 maternal deaths that occur every year, 320 take place in Ecuador, and 8800 in the entire Latin America and the Caribbean region. Post-partum hemorrhage has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the leading and yet most preventable causes of maternal death, accounting for nearly 21 percent of maternal mortality in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Read more...

By: Connie Lewin, SHE Global Fellow; Sustainable Health Enterprises is a winner of the Women Deliver 50.

Rarely mentioned in public, this taboo subject is steeped in fear and shame. It’s often hushed about behind closed doors and some girls and women even face social stigma if they are known to have it. This taboo is not any type of disease, but a natural occurrence for half of the global population. The shroud of secrecy that covers menstruation is widespread, and it has resulted in significant costs to public health, economic development, and girls’ and women’s dignity. Read more...

By:  Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Nigeria’s maternal deaths account for 14% of the world’s maternal mortality, with the risk of dying from complications in pregnancy and childbirth as high as 1 in 29. However, a new service scheme is beginning to show some promise. 

The solution is called the Nigerian Midwives Service Scheme (MSS). Read more...

By:  Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Although many maternal and newborn deaths in developing countries are preventable, they still occur at alarmingly high rates.  Whereas in developed countries, the maternal mortality rate is estimated to be 16 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, developing countries see maternal mortality rates as high as 240 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Read more...

By: Linda Nyanchoka, Women Deliver; Chanan Development Association is a winner of the Women Deliver 50

Young people play a major role in addressing the health and development issues affecting their country. At the young age of 12, Muhammad Shahzad protested against the arranged marriage of his 15 year old sister to an older man in his fifties by going on a hunger strike. This action influenced his family and community, and led to his family calling off the marriage. Muhammad has since dedicated his life to being an agent of change. Read more...

By: Lindsay Menard-Freeman, Women Deliver

If you brave the helter-skelter road out of the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh—where rickshaws, motorcycles, and oversize trucks compete with cows for two narrow lanes—then turn onto the dirt road between the rice fields, you will find something remarkable in the quiet village of Devpuri. Despite India’s dire maternal and newborn health record (each year, 78,000 women die giving birth and a million babies don’t survive their first month), mothers and newborns are surviving. Read more...

By: The GEMS Team;  GEMS was a winner of the Women Deliver 50

GEMS’ Youth Leadership program delivers solutions for commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked (CSE) girls and young women, equipping them to reach their full potential. Since its inception in 2003, the program has succeeded in empowering generations of youth survivors of the commercial sex industry to become leaders and advocates to end the commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. Read more...

By: Elise Braunschweig; Grassroot Soccer is a winner of the Women Deliver 50

South Africa is enduring one of the world‘s most severe HIV epidemics with an adult prevalence rate of 16.9%. Research shows that three inter-related risk factors—harmful gender norms and gender-based violence, multiple partners, and age-disparate sex—are driving the epidemic and that HIV is disproportionately concentrated among women and girls. Read more...

By: Eunice Namirembe and Bas Hoefman, Text to Change is a winner of the Women Deliver 50.

According to the Guttmacher Institute/IPPF publication Facts on the Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescent Women in the Developing World, it is estimated that in Sub-Saharan Africa, 67% of married adolescent women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using any method and about 12% are using traditional methods of family planning. They further state that 42% of unmarried, sexually active women are using no family planning method at all. This could be due to the fact that access to knowledge about contraceptive methods is a major barrier for young people in Africa. An added challenge is overcoming the common myths and misconceptions about contraception. Often, young people are reluctant to seek information or clarification about contraception from a clinic setting because of concerns around privacy and confidentiality, cost of services, and provider biases. Convenience of clinic locations and hours of operation is another challenge for many young people.  Read more...

By Kate Ixer; Health Poverty Action is a winner of the Women Deliver 50.

In April 2010, Sierra Leone introduced free health care for pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers to help reduce the maternal mortality and morbidity rate. Almost two years on from this watershed significant improvements have been made and many women have received the health care which they previously would not have been able to afford. Sierra Leone, a country where 70% of the population is living in extreme poverty, illustrates that free health care is crucial to improving women’s health rights. Read more... 

By: Joanna Hoffman, Women Deliver

For the estimated 3,700 Tanzanian women who experience obstetric fistula each year, a daunting landscape of stigma and shame looms before them.  Many are exiled from their families and communities, and are unable to work.  Only about 1,000 of them will receive treatment.  The rest are either unaware that treatment exists or can’t afford to access it. 

This issue led Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT), the country’s largest provider of fistula repair surgery, to take action.  CCBRT already provides services free of charge, yet the barrier of transportation costs remained.  In response, in 2009 they began using Vodaphone’s mobile banking system M-PESA—M for “mobile” and PESA for “money” in Swahili—to reduce the burden of transportation expenses. Read more...

By Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Future Generations’ “Between Us (Women): Sharing Pregnancy Histories as Part of Community Education for Maternal and Neonatal Health” is about far more than just telling stories.

The innovative program—which is currently being tested in Peru by Future Generations—is designed to help women share their voices and experiences with others to save the lives of mothers and newborns living in some of the remotest regions in the Latin American country. Read more...

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...

By: Rati Bishnoi, Women Deliver

Saving the lives of mothers and babies depends on having more than the right health care and interventions. The best facilities, caregivers, and interventions won’t improve maternal and neonatal health care delivery if basic needs for power, water, and sanitation aren’t available. Read more...

By: Rati Bishnoi, Women Deliver

Despite being outlawed for more than 100 years, nearly one-half (43 percent) of girls in India are married before the minimum legal marriage age of 18 years.

This is changing. But at a pace that’s too slow.

Child marriage is a gross violation of the rights of girls and boys. It denies the basic rights to health; nutrition; education; a life free of violence, abuse, and exploitation; and deprives children of their childhood. While child marriage affects boys as well, it impacts a greater proportion of girls and does so more severely. Read more...

By: Dr. Aoife Kenny 

An estimated 1.5 million HIV-positive women become pregnant every year. Effective treatment is essential for reducing their chance of severe illness or death during pregnancy as well as reducing the chance of infecting their children with HIV. The best way to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) is to ensure that medication is taken throughout the pregnancy and breastfeeding period. PMTCT is an essential component of three Millennium Development Goals: reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS. Read more...