Updates

By: Babatunde Osotimehin; Originally posted on The Guardian

More than 200 million women, largely in the least developed countries, want to use modern family planning methods but can't access them. They may face cultural barriers or family resistance. Contraceptives may not be available in their communities or they may not have the money to buy them, or there is a lack of information or trained workers to give advice. The result is human misery on a huge scale – and a major brake on our development hopes.

Next month in London an initiative will be launched to meet this unfilled need for modern family planning in developing countries by tackling the estimated $3.6bn (£2.3bn) annual shortfall in investment (pdf).Read more...

By: Carmen Barroso, International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region; Originally posted on Grist

In just two months, world leaders will gather in Rio to hammer out a new set of agreements on what sustainable development means, and more importantly, how both rich and developing nations can get there before it’s too late. Day by day, the buzz is building around this historic Earth Summit. But there’s a problem: The big plans being hatched for the occasion — nicknamed Rio+20 — leave women out. Read more...

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

Today, TedxChange and Melinda Gates launched the No Controversy website, in the hopes that people around the world will share their stories, read about the experiences of others, and become educated on the importance of contraception and family planning. The launch, which is available on Livestream, comes three months ahead of the July 11 Family Planning Summit that will take place in London. The Summit, supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners, seeks to generate political commitment and greater resources to meet the family planning needs of women in some of the least wealthy countries by 2020. Read more...

By: Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Regional Director of the Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office; Originally published in The Independent

A few weeks ago, on 8 March, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, which serves as a clarion call to honor girls’ and women’s contributions to their families, communities and nations. As our global population swells to over 7 billion, we must heed this call by working to ensure that every girl and woman lives a long, healthy and happy life.

Here in Africa, we are doing just that. On 27-28 March, policymakers, researchers and advocates from across the continent – including Ugandan First Lady Janet Museveni and Minister of Health Honorable Dr. Christine Ondoa – are gathering in Kampala for a regional consultation on maternal and reproductive health. At this meeting, convened by Partners in Population and Development and global advocacy organization Women Deliver, experts will discuss lessons learned, best practices and challenges for improving the health and wellbeing of girls and women. Read more...

By: Kimberly Whipkey, Global Advocacy Specialist, PATH; Woman's Condom is a winner of the Women Deliver 50

Women need access to dual protection and more female-controlled options.

If you’ve been following the discussion around the World Health Organization’s technical guidance on hormonal contraception and HIV, chances are you’ve seen this message emerge. So what female-controlled, dual protection methods are available today—methods that help prevent both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV? Read more...

Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver; Originally posted on the Impatient Optimist

Half the world’s population is under the age of 25. Young women have always been leaders in their families, managing households and caring for their family members. Increasingly, young women are taking on leadership roles in the private and public sector. But despite their extraordinary potential, girls and women remain invisible in much of the world. In developing countries, a girl is more likely to be uneducated, a child bride, or exposed to HIV/AIDS than to be an educated professional. Only $.02 of every development aid dollar is directed to girls. Read more...

By Erin Hohlfelder; Originally posted on ONE Blog.

I recently sat down with Jill Sheffield, founder of Women Deliver, an organization that works to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health, to talk about her plans for International Women’s Day, the Women Deliver 50 list and the fight for women’s equality and empowerment. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver; Originally posted on the Impatient Optimist 

On Friday, The Guardian’s Poverty Matters Blog posted an opinion piece by Dr. Ofra Koffman that questions the contributions that girls and young women can make to economies when they delay childbirth. Koffman argued that the so-called “Girl Effect” of delaying childbirth does not necessarily “stop poverty before it starts,” as the Department for International Development (DFID) claims.

However, the “Girl Effect” is about much more than adolescent fertility. It’s about the holistic approach to harnessing the power of girls and women—from literacy to the elimination of death in early childbirth to leadership opportunities—and how these factors come together to reduce global poverty. Read more...

Excerpt of a blog by Keli Goff, author of The GQ Candidate and a Contributing Editor for Loop21.com

Below is a list of the most powerful ways contraception has impacted and continues to impact the world, from issues such as literacy to life expectancy rates of women. 

1. In countries with the highest fertility rates, women have the shortest life expectancies.

Women in Sierra Leone live half as long as women in developed countries and 10 years less than their African counterparts in some African countries, and no, this is not merely due to the history of civil unrest. One in eight Sierra Leonean women dies in childbirth. In other countries like Chad, where women are likely to give birth to six or more children, women are lucky to live to age 55. Read more...