Updates

By: Purnima Mane, President and CEO of Pathfinder International; Originally posted on Huffington Post

In March of this year, on International Women’s Day, I asked, “Is 2012 the Year for Women and Girls?”  Now, as the year winds to a close, I find myself looking back on my call for stronger partnerships, more global coalitions and wondering, are those enough? 2012 was a year for women. We saw tremendous renewal of the commitment by world leaders to ensure that countries and communities have the political support and financial resources needed to improve access to sexual and reproductive health. Read more...

By: Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women; Originally posted on Huffington Post

I am often asked whether ending violence against women is possible given the pervasiveness and persistence of these crimes. My answer is yes. It is possible. But we can only do it together. We are all responsible and it is time for leaders to fulfill the promises made to women. Today, looking towards Sunday's International Day to End Violence against Women, I call on all leaders: Take a stand to end violence against women and girls. Last year I launched the 16-step policy agenda. Today, I urge all Heads of State and Government to end the scourge of violence that affects every society by participating in an exciting global initiative to showcase national commitments to end violence against women and girls. Read more...

By: Yousra Yusuf, Women Deliver

Across the world, 510 million women and girls lack access to proper nutrition. In the Philippines, 5 million adults were found to be underweight in 2010. To fight malnutrition in the Philippines, nonprofit organization Roots of Health introduced the Vertical Gardening project to help women grow their own plants to feed their family and community. After the project’s implementation in May 2010, 101 vertical gardens have been installed in the Pulang Lupa community to-date. Read more...

By: Kay Bailey Hutchinson; Originally posted on San Antonio Express

Kay Bailey Hutchison is the senior U.S. senator from Texas.

Gunmen stormed a school bus earlier this month and shot a 14-year-old girl in the head. Her crime? Getting an education. This seems almost inconceivable to those of us blessed to live in America, but in some areas of the globe, girls must risk their lives to get a basic education. Malala Yousafzai became a prominent voice for girls' education in Pakistan after the Taliban seized control of her native Swat - once a tourist destination renowned for its scenery, culture and open-mindedness - and forced an end to education for women and girls. Read more...

By: Gary Darmstadt; Originally posted on Impatient Optimists

"What can I do to get involved?"

My colleagues and I hear this often from people who want to do something to help women and girls around the world to have healthy and productive lives. Women should have a skilled birth attendant during delivery, girls should get all the nutritious foods they need to be healthy, and young women have the right to have access to family planning information, services, and contraceptives so they are empowered to plan their families and space their pregnancies. Read more...

By: Melinda Gates; Originally posted on Impatient Optimists

Lately, I have been reflecting on the ingenuity and commitment I witness in the women and girls I meet during my learning trips to the developing world. That’s because today, October 11, 2012, marks the first-ever United Nations International Day of the Girl. And it's about time. When I travel to developing countries, I try to meet as many girls as possible. I am simultaneously inspired by their boundless potential and often frustrated by how much of that potential is locked up by inequity. When I speak to people in developed countries, they often ask me, How can I help? Read more...

By: Joanna Hoffman, Women Deliver; Originally posted on End Water Poverty for Post-2015 Blog Week

Joanna Hoffman is Special Projects Manager at Women Deliver, a global advocacy organization bringing together voices from around the world to call for action to improve the health and well-being of girls and women. In this post she explains why women and girls must be at the centre of the post-2015 process, and invites you to join the Women Deliver global conference in 2013.

In just a few years, key international agreements such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the International Conference on Population and Development’s (ICPD) Programme of Action will expire. Opinions about what will come next are mixed: some believe all health issues—including maternal health, child health, and HIV/AIDS—will be collapsed into one objective; others believe the MDGs should be extended; and others believe an entirely new framework will shape the path forward. Read more...

By: Nienke Blauw, Universal Access to Female Condoms (UAFC) Joint Programme

Today, September 12, 2012 is the first ever Global Female Condom Day. Thousands of individuals and organizations from over 21 countries will join this event, initiated by several female condom advocates and coordinated by the US-based National Female Condom Coalition. The purpose of this dedicated day of action is to raise awareness and demonstrate the need for female condoms, promote their use, and call for greater access. Read more...

By: Harshi Hettige, Women Deliver

“I hate early marriage. I was married at an early age and my in-laws forced me to sleep with my husband and he made me suffer all night. After that, whenever it starts to get dark, I get worried, thinking that it will be like that. This is what I hate most.”
— 11-year old girl from Amhara region, Ethiopia. Married at age 5, lost her virginity at age 9.

The Berhane Hewan (“Light for Eve” in Amharic) project was established to help girls like this one by providing best practices to protect them from early marriage and supporting those who are already married. 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...

By: Elissa Kennedy; Originally posted on The Conversation

World leaders, international donors, government officials from developing countries and civil society organisations gathered at the London Summit on Family Planning overnight to support the right of women and adolescent girls to freely decide the number and timing of their children.

Leaders from more than 20 developing countries made bold commitments and donors pledged US$2.6 billion over the next eight years to reach 120 million more women and adolescent girls with essential family planning services. Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr showed his support earlier in the week with an editorial in The Lancet and committed to doubling Australia’s aid for family planning to more than $50 million a year by 2016. Read more...

By: Vicky Markham, Center for Environment and Population (CEP); Originally posted on RH Reality Check

The Rio+20 conference is now entering its last days, final negotiations have begun, and tensions are rising as the challenge to our issues is acute. There’ve been demonstrations, heightened advocacy, and frustration:  while we know the issues of “women, reproductive health and environmentally sustainable development” are integrated in the real world (thus essential to achieving the goals of this Earth Summit), coming away with anything less than them being central and overarching in the final Rio+20 document would be a major disappointment, and more. Let’s see what the last days actually bring, things can still change. Soon the Rio+20 outcome document will be finalized and all will be heading home. Read more...

By: Danielle Nierenberg, Worldwatch Institute

Women Deliver is collaborating with the 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.

As the long awaited ‘Future We Want’ draft was being released at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, leaders, experts, and activists were already gathering to discuss the future that women want. Read more...

Originally Posted By: Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights

There are few youth sexual and reproductive health and rights activists present in Rio de Janeiro for the Rio+20 Summit. We may not have strength in numbers, but we are making noise. We are making noise in support of our rights, our health and our futures.

We are at a critical time, when governments are making significant decisions about our sexual and reproductive health and rights, specifically our ability to access information, modern contraception and services, the human rights of young women and girls, and the recognition of adolescents’ SRHR. These decisions will have a serious impact on today’s generation of young people, as well as future generations of young people around the world. Read more...

By: Danielle Nierenberg, Worldwatch Institute

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.

Important issues surrounding gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and youth have largely been left out of discussions and the Zero Draft document in the lead up to the summit. Several groups have been working to lobby for the inclusion of these issues. In March 2012, Women Deliver convened many of these organizations to discuss the opportunities and challenges in doing so. Read more...

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: Jennifer James; orginally posted at Impatient Optimist

Next month world leaders will converge upon Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from June 20 – 22, for Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (commonly called the “Earth Summit”).  Women's groups are pushing to become a major part of the agenda as women continue to be marginalized when it comes to poverty eradication and sustainable development.

The vast majority of the world’s poor are women and children--even twenty years after the first sustainability conference in Rio. It’s one reason why the Women’s Major Group, which includes international sustainable development organizations, is calling for women to share their stories and make their voices heard to ensure women’s issues are not shuffled off the agenda. Read more...