2012 is already shaping up to be a year of progress and forward-thinking, particularly as we begin to construct a new development framework. Convening global and regional experts, engaging young people and revolutionizing funding for projects focusing on girls and women will be critical steps forward. With this in mind, the Women Deliver team has been hard at work planning for the 2012 Regional Consultations and the next global conference in 2013 in Kuala Lumpur; developing a funding platform; planning for the Commission on Population and Development; and continuing to advocate for the health and well-being of girls and women worldwide. We’re excited2012 is already shaping up to be a year of progress and forward-thinking, particularly as we begin to construct a new development framework. Read more...
Updates
Updates from Women Deliver: Next Steps in Advocating for Girls and Women Worldwide
February 3rd, 2012
Michelle Bachelet Outlines Action Agenda to Advance Equality as UN Women Completes One Year
February 2nd, 2012
Statement Of Ms. Bachelet On UN Women One Year Anniversary: Calls for global mobilization and commitment to women’s rights as political and economic changes continue worldwide
New York, 2nd February — At a press conference in New York today, UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet called for galvanizing greater commitment and action for women and gender equality, as political and economic upheaval threaten progress on women’s rights (remarks enclosed here). She called the press conference to report on the first year of operations of UN Women. With austerity measures, budget cuts and political changes impacting women’s lives, worldwide, Ms. Bachelet outlined the action agenda of the organization in her first press conference of 2012. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Farming for a Healthier Future
January 30th, 2012
By: Janna Oberdorf, Director of Communications and Outreach for Women Deliver
At the Tamlega Dispensary in Chwele, Kenya, pregnant women who arrive for check-ups leave with an unusual prescription: a voucher for sweetpotato vines. The goal is to leverage the untapped potential of sweetpotatoes, a food crop rich in vitamin A, to significantly improve the nutrition, incomes, and food production of farming families in sub-Saharan Africa, especially among impoverished women and children.
The project, “Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA),” was launched in eight sub-Saharan African countries in 2009 by the International Potato Center (CIP), with support from a five-year, $21 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read more...
Gates Foundation: Every Woman Should Have Access to Family Planning
January 27th, 2012
By: Joanna Hoffman, Special Projects Manager
This week, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released their annual letter from Bill Gates, identifying family planning as a priority area for 2012. When women have access to family planning, Gates explains, poverty is reduced, more children are educated, and governments are better able to meet the needs of their people. This allows governments and citizens to benefit from the “demographic dividend”, referring to decreases in family size resulting in a higher number of educated youth. When these youth reach working age, they boost productivity and economic growth for their country. Read more...
CALL FOR WOMEN DELIVER 50 NOMINATIONS ENDS TODAY, FEBRUARY 10TH AT 6PM EST
January 25th, 2012
Every year, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, Women Deliver celebrates the progress made on behalf of girls and women worldwide. Our Women Deliver 100 list in 2011, which featured 100 of the most inspiring people who have delivered for girls and women, was covered by over 100 traditional and new media sources. This year, to continue the momentum, we are spotlighting the top 50 inspiring ideas and solutions that deliver for girls and women. We would love to hear what you think are the most innovative, impactful, and promising advancements in overcoming gender inequality. Read more...
Global Health and Diplomacy (GHD) Magazine Launches at the World Economic Forum
January 25th, 2012
Davos, Switzerland – January 25, 2012 - Global Health and Diplomacy (GHD), a publication that provides a forum for communication between heads of state, health ministers, first ladies, civil society leaders, the private sector and global health experts, was launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
This publication fills the existing gap in the dialogue between global health, diplomacy, development and security. For many years these discussions have been compartmentalized into different journals. Global health solutions need to be broad based and encompass all stakeholders, thus, a publication that allows government officials, civil society, the private sector and global health experts to engage, discuss and offer solutions is an absolute necessity. Read more...
Melinda Gates and Nick Kristof Answer Your Questions, Part III
January 17th, 2012
By: Melinda French Gates
Originally posted by: the Impatient Optimists
Melinda Gates and Nick Kristof recently returned from a three-day trip to Bangladesh. She, along with Nick, agreed to answer readers’ questions about development issues in that part of the world. Here is the third and final installment.
ELAINE HARRIS: Presumably Melinda is visiting Bangladesh to ascertain the needs specifically related to women and children and ultimately providing assistance. What an amazing position to be in. How will the needs be evaluated? How will the women and children of Bangladesh be involved in the solution? Thank you both for engaging in these humanitarian efforts. Read more...
Melinda Gates and Nick Kristof Answer Your Questions, Part II
January 12th, 2012
By: Melinda French Gates
Originally posted by: the Impatient Optimists
Melinda Gates and Nick Kristof recently returned from a three-day trip to Bangladesh. To highlight the corresponding development issues, they agreed to answer reader's questions. This is the second installment of their three-part Q&A session.
Q. COSIMA BARLETT: My comments do not in any way detract from the profound admiration I have for you and your Foundation but a simple question: why do you not concentrate more of your efforts on American children who are so lacking in so many important areas as statistics now show? Read more...
Melinda Gates and Nick Kristof Answer Your Questions
January 10th, 2012
By: Melinda French Gates
Originally posted by: the Impatient Optimists
Melinda recently returned from a three-day trip to Bangladesh. She, along with Nick Kristof, agreed to answer readers’ questions about development issues focusing on that part of the world. Here is the first installment of the Q&A session reposted from Kristof's New York Times blog "On the Ground." Read more...
Mediaplanet to Release Call-To-Action Campaign to Invest in Women and Girls Globally
January 6th, 2012
NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Mediaplanet Publishing, the global leader in theme media, announced the release of the fourth installment of their "Investing in Women & Girls" publication series to hit newsstands on March 2-4, 2012. In alignment with International Women’s Day, the publication will raise awareness of the potential women and girls have as the world’s greatest untapped resource, highlighting the idea that investing in women and girls is crucial in achieving global economic progress, political stability and greater prosperity for women and men around the world. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Grants To Accelerate Mobile Technology Centered on Maternal and Newborn Health
December 29th, 2011
Earlier this month at the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC, the Innovation Working Group, part of the UN Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child Strategy, and the mHealth Alliance announced 8 winners of grants to support mobile health programs. The grants will fund innovative mobile technology projects that have the potential to improve maternal and child health globally.
The projects are based in low-income countries with high maternal and child mortality rates. They aim to improve evaluation design, enhance health information sharing, and increase the capabilities of technologies that help clinical decision-making. Over the two-year grant period, the grantees will build partnerships, scale up their projects to national levels or extend their reach to new communities. The grant program is generously supported by NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, with technical support from the mHealth Alliance. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Empowering Young Girls in Egypt through Youth Centers
December 26th, 2011
By: Madeline Taskier, Strategic Partnerships Associate at Women Deliver
In Egypt, young girls living in rural areas often do not have the opportunity to attend school. Instead, they help their families and are socially isolated due to conservative gender norms. They often marry young and have little access to public life, as they are confined to the home to raise children and take care of their households. These girls have little access to health care, education, or peers in their communities. To break the cycle of this isolation and enable these girls to reach their full potential, the Population Council launched Ishraq (meaning “sunrise” in Arabic) in 2001. The program brings adolescent girls from Upper Egypt together in youth centers and provides training to improve their educational, health, and social opportunities. Read more...
A Formative Close to the Maternal Health Dialogue Series
December 16th, 2011
By: Madeline Taskier, Strategic Partnerships Associate at Women Deliver
Yesterday, in Washington, DC, the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Maternal Health Task Force, UNFPA, USAID Bureau for Global Health, and the African Population and Health Research Center co-hosted the last session of the two year maternal health dialogue series. The partners launched the report, “Delivering Solutions: Advancing Dialogue to Improve Maternal Health,” which captures the strategies and recommendations that emerged from the series.
Since December 2009, this maternal health dialogue series has hosted 28 sessions with over 100 panelists engaging in conversation and debate around some of the most pressing maternal health topics. A total of over one thousand participants attended sessions on topics ranging from HIV/AIDS and maternal health service integration to family planning in fragile states; new applications of existing communications technologies; and addressing maternal health in urban slums. The series focused on major challenges and opportunities for moving the maternal health agenda forward, and affirmed that solutions for saving the lives of women and girls are plentiful and powerful. Read more...
The Power Of The “Demographic Dividend”
December 14th, 2011
By: Gary Darmstadt
Originally posted by: the Impatient Optimists
I recently had the opportunity to attend a meeting at the World Bank where global health and development leaders and finance ministers from rich and poor countries met to share experiences and learning about the demographic dividend.
The concept of the demographic dividend is that when fertility rates in a country decline, fewer births take place each year, and the size of the population of individuals who are dependent on the state grows smaller. Read more...
Aid Effectiveness Forum: What Does It Mean for Reproductive Health?
December 9th, 2011
By: Suzanna Dennis
Originally posted by: Population Action International
Aid effectiveness and government investments directly shape the amount and quality of funding for reproductive health. For example, the move to greater country ownership over aid has advocates concerned that governments will not sufficiently prioritize sexual and reproductive health.
Last week, global development powerbrokers convened in Busan, South Korea to assess progress towards aid effectiveness goals, develop a more inclusive global aid framework and address issues beyond aid. The organizers of this Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) declared it a resounding success: They delivered a global Partnership for Development Cooperation bringing together all development actors around a shared set of development principles. Read more...
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women Announces the 2011 Call for Proposals
December 8th, 2011
The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women is accepting applications for its 16th grant cycle (2011) from government authorities, civil society organizations and networks — including non-governmental, women’s and community-based organizations and coalitions, and operational research institutions — and UN Country Teams (in partnership with governments and civil society organizations). Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Partnering for Healthy Girls, Women and Economies
December 8th, 2011
By: Madeline Taskier, Strategic Partnerships Associate at Women Deliver
In November 2010, GBCHealth (formerly the Global Business Coalition) launched a cross-sectoral initiative, Healthy Women, Healthy Economies (HHWE), to highlight the importance of investing in the health of girls and women in order to promote economic sustainability and growth. Each HHWE corporation works to strengthen their programs while also collaborating with other partners to learn ways in which they can invest better in girls and women through the development of best practices and strategic innovations.
The partnership between GBCHealth, the U.S. State Department Office of Global Women’s Issues, and companies including Coca Cola and Chevron (among many others) guides corporate investment to areas where companies can have the most impact: improving health systems, bolstering the health of the female workforce, and supporting girls’ education. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Fixing What’s Broken, Education for Medical Equipment Technicians
December 5th, 2011
By: Rati Bishnoi, Special Projects Intern
Two reasons—a lack of spare parts and too few highly trained technicians—are often cited as the causes of large numbers of out-of-service laboratory and medical equipment across the developing world. As a result of broken equipment, already burdened health systems find it increasingly challenging to accurately diagnose and treat patients.
This obstacle is particularly alarming as 2015, the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), looms on the horizon. Strong, functioning health systems are essential to reaching the MDGs, and MDG 5 in particular. With this in mind, Duke University researchers from Robert Malkin’s Developing World Healthcare Technology Laboratory set out to better understand the problem of unused or underutilized medical equipment in developing countries. Read more...
International Conference on Family Planning: Invest in Women – It Pays!
December 2nd, 2011
By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver
This week, I was privileged to join more than 2,200 participants at the International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar, Senegal. It was truly an amazing conference with three days of rich discussion and wonderful commitments, like those made by Dfid and the government of Senegal.
As the focus of this conference was on family planning, it was essential that participants not only discuss the social benefits of investing in family planning – which include a reduction of unintended pregnancies, a decrease in maternal deaths, and a decline of unsafe abortions – but also the incredible economic impact of investing in family planning. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Jhpiego wins $1.6M grant from GE Foundation
December 1st, 2011
By: Alexander Jackson, originally posted on Baltimore Business Journal
A Johns Hopkins University affiliate has been awarded $1.6 million from the GE Foundation to support the development of lifesaving technologies for women and children in developing countries.
Jhpiego, a Baltimore-based international nonprofit, will use the money to create new products through its Innovation Development Program. Centered on maternal and child health, the program focuses on early-stage innovation and then, for selected projects, field-testing and product introduction. Read more...