By: Harshi Hettige, Women Deliver
Iran’s family planning program has been lauded as an ‘Iranian Miracle’ and modeled around the world, including here in the US. It holds the record for the largest and fastest decline in fertility ever. The total fertility rate (TFR) dropped from 6 children per woman in the mid-1980s to 2.1 children per woman in 2000. This greatly exceeded expectations; the TFR in 2000 was less than half of what had been planned for 2011. "It confounded all conventional wisdom that it could happen in one of the world's few Islamic republics," said Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, a demographer at the University of Tehran. Read more...
Updates
Celebrate Solutions: Iran’s Family Planning Success Story
July 30th, 2012
Celebrate Solutions: Convenient, Lifesaving HIV Testing in Tanzania
July 23rd, 2012
By: Harshi Hettige, Women Deliver
Jhpiego, a global health care organization for women and families, has made it their mission to ask the question, “How can we make lifesaving services available and accessible to the people who need them—all over the world?” This question will be brought up again and again at the International AIDS Conference in Washington DC next week. Together with partners Africare and the Tanzania Marketing and Communication (T-MARC) Company, Jhpiego has found an answer in Tanzania. Read more...
Family Planning is Key to a Sustainable World
July 12th, 2012
By: Danielle Nierenberg, Jill Sheffield; Originally posted on Impatient Optimists
In June, at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, global leaders missed a historic opportunity to put reproductive health and family planning at the center of global sustainability and development. Today’s London Summit on Family Planning, hosted by the United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, succeeded where the Rio+20 conference fell short, by making clear the inextricable links between women, reproductive health, and poverty reduction. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Philips Electronics Showcases Clinical Solutions for Maternal Health
July 5th, 2012
By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver
Philips Electronics, a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), announced in June that it would continue its work towards MDG 4 and 5 to reduce newborn and maternal deaths. The announcement took place during the 2012 Cairo to Cape Town Roadshow, while on a stopover in Ghana. During the stopover, Philips representatives showcased several clinical solutions designed to make progress towards reaching MDG 4 and 5. Read more...
Ford Foundation Launches Child Marriage Map and Partner Index
June 29th, 2012
The Ford Foundation, in partnership with the Girls Not Brides campaign, has recently shared their child marriage interactive map, and partner index of Girls Not Brides member organizations. The map is linked to the recent article from Time magazine titled, “Why Is It So Hard to Combat Child Marriage?”
The website examines 30 countries with the highest rates of child marriage, and offers some alarming statistics: “Across the developing world, more than one-third of girls are married by age 18, and one in seven is married by age 15, with devastating effects on girls’ health, education, earning power and independence.” Read more...
Rio+20: Highlighting the Voices of Women
June 21st, 2012
By: Corine Milano; Originally Posted on World Pulse
World Pulse delivered the voices of grassroots women leaders to the UN’s 2nd Landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Of the 55 statements from women in 28 different countries, eight recommendations were highlighted on the website, exposing that sustainable development must tackle issues ranging from sanitation to land rights to economic empowerment for women. Read more...
Rio+20: Sustainable Development Needs Women’s Empowerment, UN Official Says
June 19th, 2012
Originally posted on UN News Centre
New York, Jun 18 2012—Sustainable development will not be achieved without empowering women, the head of the United Nations agency tasked with advancing gender equality said today, adding that the importance of their participation must be reflected in all aspects of the outcome document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).
“We cannot afford to leave women marginalized,” the Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), Michelle Bachelet, told reporters today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Read more...
Women and Sustainability: Five Youth-Led Initiatives That Are Shaking Up Rio+20
June 15th, 2012
By Seyyada Burney, Research Intern, Nourishing the Planet
Women Deliver is collaborating with Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project to highlight the important role of women, youth, and sexual and reproductive health and rights in sustainable development at the upcoming Rio+20 conference.
Les jeunes, os jovens, or vijana. Call them what you will, young people make up nearly 40 percent of the global population. According to statistics from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 85 percent of the world’s children and youth currently live in the developing world, mostly in Asia. Read more...
Women and Sustainability: Recognizing the Role of Women at Rio+20
June 15th, 2012
By: Danielle Nierenberg, Worldwatch Institute
Women Deliver is collaborating with Worldwatch Institute's Nourising the Planet project to highlight the important role of women, youth, and sexual and reproductive health and rights in sustainable development at the upcoming Rio+20 conference.
From sustainable cities to renewable energy, some of the most crucial areas of development policy remain devoid of any mention or dialogue on the issue of women’s rights. To put these neglected issues on the global agenda, numerous governments, executives, NGOs, and civil society activists will gather next week to represent the voices of the women, youth, and children around the world at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. Read more...
World Health Assembly Welcomes Calls to Address Early Marriage
June 11th, 2012
Originally posted on Girls Not Brides
Last week, one of the world’s most credible, respected bodies on global health held a debate on early marriage, adolescent and youth pregnancies. The discussion at the World Health Assembly, a body that determines the policies of the World Health Organisation (WHO), formally recognised that we need to act across all health sectors if we’re to achieve a reduction in early marriage and save the lives of millions of young mothers. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Johnson & Johnson Supports Maternal Health Trainings in Nigeria
May 24th, 2012
By: Denis Robson, Director of African Affairs, Johnson & Johnson
Despite the quiet and formal surroundings of Dr. Aminu Mai’s office, matters of birth and death are always at the front of his mind. As an obstetrician in Nigeria, where one expectant mother dies every 10 minutes through no fault of her own, Dr. Mai spends a lot of time thinking about how closely the two events are linked – and how important it is that the country’s birth attendants receive updated information and training to save lives. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Nike Foundation Funding for Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program
May 10th, 2012
By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver
The Nike Foundation continues its commitment to the Girl Effect and the health of girls and women by funding Tostan’s Community Empowerment Programs.
Tostan is an international grassroots organization. The Community Empowerment Program is a community-based effort that makes use of the power of social networks to promote knowledge and skills sharing. The program was created with the intention of targeting the most vulnerable in the country: rural girls and women and embraces a holistic and participatory approach. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Transforming Victims into Advocates
May 7th, 2012
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...
Corporate Buzz: General Mills & Merck Support Expanding “Join My Village” Project
April 26th, 2012
By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver
General Mills and Merck subsidiary MSD India joined forces in 2009 to create the “Join My Village” project to support non-profit organization CARE. They are now due to expand that project from its initial site in Malawi to India.
Join My Village was created to offer girls and women in developing countries a means to access education as a gateway to more economic opportunities and better quality of life. As of December 2011, since launching in Malawi in 2009, the project has released over $1.2 million to CARE. Read more...
Don’t Forget the Girls
April 18th, 2012
By: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund; Originally posted on Huffington Post
As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues.
Sadly, millions of women in developing countries still lack even the most basic care during pregnancy and too often have no one to assist during births. As a result, 1,000 women die every day from complications in pregnancy or childbirth, and countless others suffer debilitating injuries, such as obstetric fistula. Moreover, 215 million women still lack access to modern contraceptives and are, therefore, unable to make fundamental decisions about whether or when to become pregnant. Read more...
Corporate Buzz: Safaricom and Huru International Provide Girls With Empowerment Kits
April 12th, 2012
By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver
Last month, the Safaricom Foundation, a charity funded by telecom provider Safaricom Limited and Vodafone Group Foundation, announced it would be supporting the Huru Re-usable Sanitary Pad Project. The project is run by Huru International, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Kenya.
Years of research have repeatedly demonstrated that the unavailability of sanitary pads plays a major role globally in young girls’ dropout rates and missed days of school. According to Huru’s website, many girls miss 3 to 4 days of school every month due to their menstrual period, and according to UNICEF, 1 in 10 girls in Africa do not attend school while menstruating. This project supports initiatives that are already in place by the Government of Kenya, which has already pledged money towards providing free sanitary pads. Read more...
Celebrate Solutions: Solar Energy for Safer Births
March 19th, 2012
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...
Strength in Unity: Girls Not Brides and the Global Partnership to End Child Marriage
March 16th, 2012
By: Laura Dickinson, Communications Officer, Girls Not Brides; The Partnership to End Child Marriage is a winner of the Women Deliver 50
“Child brides are some of the world’s most isolated people. We are delighted that the work of Girls Not Brides and its members to give these girls a voice and to empower those vulnerable to child marriage has been recognised by Women Deliver,” said Marianna Brungs, Coordinator of Girls Not Brides, as the new global partnership to end child marriage was recognised as one of the “most inspiring ideas and solutions delivering for girls and women.” Read more...
Reducing Maternal Mortality in Haiti
March 15th, 2012
By: Nadene Brunk, Midwives for Haiti is a winner of the Women Deliver 50
Midwives For Haiti began educating Haitian women, in the skills that save mother's lives, in 2006. We began by teaching under trees, in the laundry room of a hospital, in an outdoor restaurant; wherever we could find room to teach and learn. With no textbooks in Creole, the native language of the majority of women in Haiti, we improvised and created teaching materials with our students. We learned that Haitian women are hungry for knowledge and have seen enough maternal and infant death to know they want to be a part of ending the suffering and grief. Read more...
Creating a Safe Space for Young Mayan Girls
March 13th, 2012
By: Jennifer Catino and Alejandra Colom, Population Council; Abriendo Oportunidades (“Opening Opportunities”) is a winner of the Women Deliver 50
Claudia*, a Mayan girl visiting from her village home in El Cerro Grande, arrived at a Guatemala City hospital with severe abdominal pains. After a brief medical exam she was released by the doctor, who found nothing wrong with her.
Claudia belongs to Guatemala’s most disadvantaged group: indigenous young females. Girls like her typically live in isolated rural communities with limited access to basic services like water, sanitation, passable roads, schooling, and health care. Their lives are marked by early marriage, frequent childbearing, social isolation, violence, and chronic poverty. Often they are disregarded by more affluent Guatemalans, like the doctor who examined her. Read more...