Updates

By: Frank Roijmans, Executive Director of the Institutional Family Planning Services at Merck

It was an honor and a pleasure to participate in the Women Deliver Brunch, preceding the UN Summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched a major concerted effort to accelerate progress on Women's and Children's health. The brunch was designed to exchange thoughts and come up with ideas to integrate and create synergies amongst all the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) through concerted actions at country level. Merck/MSD fully support the endeavors of the United Nations, Women Deliver and the wider development community. We share the top priority goals that include improving universal quality access to reproductive health and reducing maternal mortality, which are major contributors to the overall health of women, families and society. Read more...

By: Paula R. DeCola, Senior Director, External Medical Affairs, Pfizer, Inc

Prior to the UN General Assembly’s special session on MDG’s, Women Deliver hosted an event with UN agencies and delegates, government officials, foundations, as well as corporate and nonprofit leaders. “Accelerating Action on the MDGs: Delivering for Women, Girls, and Babies” took place at the Waldorf Astoria. I learned that day that although it is recognized as a locus for high society social events, its Park Avenue location once was home to a fistula hospital. Read more...

By: Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of the Group Vestergaard Frandsen

I shared the stage on Sunday, 19 September with Dr. Imane Khachani of Morocco at the Women Deliver event on "Accelerating Action on the MDGs: Delivering for Girls, Women and Babies" at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. At this important event, I spoke about the need to engage the private sector when developing solutions to addressing global public health issues. As a representative of the private sector, I wanted to highlight the fact that many companies, including Vestergaard Frandsen, want to be a partner in identifying and implementing solutions to improve the lives of girls and women. Read more...

By: Josh Nesbit, co-founder and executive director of FrontlineSMS:Medic

The magnitude of certain problems is fully evident and inexcusable. Each year, 350,000 women and girls die every year from pregnancy-related causes, and over 100 million lack access to family planning. My generation has had access to these staggering statistics for years. As global citizens, we must now choose to act.

I was honored to join heads of UN agencies and government officials, as well as corporate and nonprofit leaders at last week’s Women Deliver event, “Accelerating Action on the MDGs: Delivering for Women, Girls, and Babies.” The theme threading the event’s discussions was clear - low-hanging impact exists, and if we want to increase access to proven interventions, we need to get creative. Read more...

By: Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen 

Women deliver in so many ways. It is usually a woman who gives so much of herself without hesitation, negating her needs to serve those of others.

She is the mother who patiently sifts through the dust for stray grains of rice to feed her malnourished children. She is the wife who lovingly cares for a husband with tuberculosis. She is the family’s caregiver who walks seven kilometers every day to fetch water from a brown river so her family can drink. And she never complains.  

That same woman suppresses her own dreams of education to do piecemeal work to pay for her children’s school fees. And when her youngest child spikes a fever in the middle of the night, she will barter whatever she can to get a truck driver to carry them to the nearest clinic three villages away. She doesn’t know how she will pay for medication if available, or for the long trip home. But through sheer determination, she’ll find a way.

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals is proud to support Women Deliver 2010.Click through to watch a video message by Andreas Fibig, Chairman of the Board of Management of Bayer Schering Pharma AG.

By Linda Alexander, Vice President of Women's Health and Global Advocacy, QIAGEN

I’m here in Beijing, at the 20th annual Global Summit of Women (May 20-22), where women business, NGO and government leaders have assembled to discuss strategies for advancing women’s economic opportunities and to lead, shape, and transform the global future.

The theme on this 20th anniversary year of the Global Summit is "Women at the Forefront of Change," and few cities in the world more embody rapid change than Beijing. From ancient pagodas to jaw-dropping modern architecture, and from rickshaw rides through alleyways to bustling subway stops, Beijing is vibrant and colorful, and feels both new and old at the same time.

By: Paula R. DeCola, Senior Director, External Medical Affairs, Pfizer, Inc

Global collective action is a pre-requisite to addressing the complex and interrelated development challenges that face our nations. International development is currently viewed as being a part of national security, which has traditionally been limited to measures related to military strength. It is now recognized that sharing knowledge, skills and other resources is a critical prelude to security, as well as to international relations and global advancement. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated that, “Development was once the province of humanitarians, charities, and governments looking to gain allies in global struggles. Today it is a strategic, economic, and moral imperative…”¹