Updates

First Ladies have a unique position… they have ability to whisper in the ears of some of the most important people in the nation. And through these passionate and influential advocates, there’s the opportunity to address some of the biggest challenges facing girls and women.

This blog-post was originally published at Conversations for a Better World, a shared blog on population, gender, and health.

“Ask for what you want. Take what you get. Then, use what you’ve got to get what you want.”

An old cliché says that "all politics is local" - that people's votes are driven more by the quality of local services like garbage collection than by debates on big national issues.

On August 23, the NY Times has a special issue of the their magazine dedicated to "Saving the World's Women." We've been waiting in anticipation of this issue -- salivating over the cover-to-cover coverage of topics focused on women.

Last week, the Population Reference Bureau launched the annual World Population Data Sheet, highlighting country, regional, and global population, health, and environment data and patterns.

The First Lady of Zambia, Thandiwe Banda, has called for concerted efforts among stakeholders to reduce cases of maternal mortality and morbidity in her own country.

This week, Akimbo, the blog for the International Women's Health Coalition, published a 3-part series on the importance of investing in women taken from a speech given at the 20th World Population Day in Abuja, Nigeria.

Amnesty International just uploaded this video. Watch it and then read this article on CNN.com about pregnancy and childbirth in Peru.

The International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights (IIMMHR) just released a publication called "The Missing Link: Applied Budget Work as a Tool to Hold Governments Accountable for Maternal Mortality Reduction Commitments."

A few months ago, Deepali Gaur Singh wrote a piece on the Huffington Post about maternal mortality in India and Women Deliver's efforts to improve maternal health in this region.

The Millennium Development Goals were set with the target deadline of 2015. We probably don't have to tell you -- we are not even close. In fact, MDG 5 (reduce maternal mortality) is the most off-track of all the MDGs, as stated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's Women's eNews' piece, "Mothers Should Not Die Giving Life," he puts a face on the stats -- his sister, Asmau.

UNICEF blogged a great post focused on maternal and neonatal tetanus. Jen Banbury mentions that most people in the US think of tetanus as something you get if you step on a rusty nail. But in the developing world just a decade ago, 30,000 mothers were dying from tetanus each year.

In health facilities across Kenya, many workers are struggling to do their jobs in less-than-ideal conditions. Work climate issues such as poor working environments, unfriendly colleagues, disorganized facility functions and ineffective supervision have been hindering workers’ performance and productivity—and contributing to low retention.

A new report, "Economic Impact of Unsafe Abortion-Related Morbidity and Mortality: Evidence and Estimation Challenges," reveals that unsafe abortion-related morbidity and mortality (UARMM) exacts a huge price annually in terms of the lives and health of women in developing countries each year.