Updates

By: Gemma Bulos, Director of the Global Women’s Water Initiative

This post is part of a series created in partnership by WASH Advocates and Women Deliver. For more information, please contact Cecilia Snyder.

**Are you a journalist at Women Deliver? Contact Cecilia Snyder to arrange an interview of Gemma and other great leaders in Women and WASH!**

At Amuria High School in Uganda, even though female students live at the school as boarders, perfect attendance is not guaranteed. Girl children are required to fetch water during school hours and they can sometimes miss up to three hours of school. Along the way to retrieve water, they also face the threat of violent attack, including sexual assault. What is more, since there is no water on the school grounds, their meals can be served late, and during menstruation they can miss up to a week of studies because they can’t clean themselves properly. In fact, without a reliable supply of clean water to drink, as many as five girls per day faint from dehydration. Read more...

By:  Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Last year, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) joined other independent organizations, governments, and private foundations at the London Summit on Family Planning in committing to expand women’s access to contraception around the world.

The London Summit set an ambitious goal for the global community: to increase access to contraception for 120 million women living in the world’s poorest countries by 2020. Read more...

By: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin; Originally posted on Global Motherhood, Huffington Post

The ability to decide when to have children, and how many, is seen as one of the most significant social advances of recent decades. However, this quiet but profound revolution has not yet touched all parts of the world equally. Over half a century after modern family planning programmes began to be extended widely across the globe, millions of women are still denied access to them. Read more...

By: Mary Beth Hastings, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) Vice President

It’s not that we can’t do it. We have the ability to save the lives of almost every one of the 290,000 women who die each year as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, in addition to millions of children. A new report – released with little fanfare – by the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children details how we can save 6 million lives over five years simply by improving access to 13 vital products. Read more...

By: Florence B. Mwitwa, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Tanzania

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012. For more stories and to get involved further visit No Controversy.

For many young people in my community, talking about contraception is just not comfortable. This is not only true for young people, but also for adults, who might have trouble broaching the topic or supporting young people in their choices. Read more...

Originally posted on Huffington Post's Impact Pages

Every day 800 women lose their lives giving birth — 287,000 each year — and the vast majority of these deaths occurs in developing countries. Maternal and child mortality are inextricably related because babies whose mothers die before they’re just 6 weeks old are more likely to die themselves before their second birthdays, than those whose mothers survive.

These deaths are unacceptable, particularly because they are preventable. In 2011, about 6.9 million children died before reaching their 5th birthday -– a significant decline from 12million in 1990. Read more...

Originally posted on Every Mother Counts

The Sixth Annual World Contraception Day is coming up on September 26th. This worldwide campaign envisions a world where every pregnancy is wanted and this year, we’re setting the blogosphere on fire with posts, perspectives and conversations all about contraception. Women Deliver, in partnership with the Gates Foundation’s Impatient Optimists, is sponsoring the blog-fest focused on this year’s WCD theme: Your Future. Your Choice. Your Contraception. Read more...

By: Jos Dirkx, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from South Africa

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012. For more stories and to get involved further visit No Controversy.

The basic human rights of women regarding their health, bodies and sexuality are under threat, and have been called into question during recent debates on contraceptive use and reproductive rights. Read more...

By: Anne Alan Sizomu, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Uganda

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012. For more stories and to get involved further visit No Controversy.

Unfortunately, there is a misconception among young people that contraceptives are only for married and older people. But I know that family planning is important to young people too. Young or old, family planning should be a simple and personal decision made by informed individuals or couples regarding how often and when to have children. Read more...

By: Wanzala E. Martin, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Uganda

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012.

I am from Uganda, a country that many consider one of the earliest and best success stories in reducing HIV in the world. Whether or not you agree with this assertion, one fact for sure is that Uganda has experienced substantial declines in HIV prevalence and incidence during the past decade, especially among adolescents. This reduction can largely be attributed to increased access to contraception coupled with better funding to the health sector. Read more...

By: Cecilia García Ruiz, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Mexico

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012.

World Contraception Day will be celebrated for the 6th time on September 26, 2012. For six years we’ve worked to shine a spotlight on these key issues, but some people still disregard the importance of providing universal access to quality contraceptive services and information to prevent unplanned pregnancies, especially among young people. Read more...

By: Yemurai Nyoni, Women Deliver 100 Young Leader from Zimbabwe

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012.

Sexual and reproductive health is a human right and essential to human development. But, as a young person living in Africa, it is often difficult for us to realize our sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially when it comes to family planning. Read more...

By: Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver

This blog is part of a series, edited by Women Deliver, in partnership with Impatient Optimists, on youth perspectives to celebrate World Contraception Day. Share your thoughts in comments and join the conversation at #WCD2012. For more stories and to get involved further visit No Controversy.

Happy World Contraception Day! For those of you who aren’t familiar, every year on September 26th we celebrate World Contraception Day (WCD), a global campaign with a vision for a world where every pregnancy is wanted. Read more...

By: Dr. Aoife Kenny, a maternal health advocate and clinician in New Zealand

Pregnancy and childbirth can be dangerous, no matter where you are in the world. But it is the ability to deal with, or better yet prevent, things from going wrong that makes the difference.

A study published in BJOG, the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in July 2012 highlights an exciting development for women worldwide. Read more...

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...

By Lauran Neergaard; Originally posted on The Huffington Post

Tackling the female side of the AIDS epidemic means going far beyond today's global focus on pregnant women, specialists told the world's largest AIDS meeting Wednesday.

Already women make up half the world's HIV infections. Adolescent girls are at particular risk in the hardest-hit parts of the world, and protecting them requires addressing the poverty, violence and discrimination that too many women experience around the world, said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta. Read more...