Updates

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver

Last week, the UN Commission on Women and Children’s Health released the final report, “Keeping Promises, Measuring Results,” with recommendations that will serve to hold countries and organizations accountable for the commitments they make to save the lives of girls, women and children around the world. I am honored to have been a part of this Commission. The brief and intense process has produced an accountability framework to deliver real results and resources for girls and women through monitoring, review and action. Read more...

By: Rachel Cernansky, winner of the Women Bloggers Deliver contest

In rural Kenya, a majority of women give birth at home and without a skilled attendant--often because hospitals, and the transportation to even get to a hospital, are simply too expensive and inaccessible for so many women.

Now imagine the situation for HIV-positive women, who should give birth by C-section to reduce the risk of transmission from mother to child. According to the Ministry of Health, only 65 percent of hospitals in the country provide that procedure. It's also more expensive, so even if it's locally available, it's not always a realistic option. Read more...

By: Rachel Cernansky, winner of the Women Bloggers Deliver contest

It was raining when we got to the Malava Girls school--the loud, heavy kind of rain that makes it hard to hear your own voice inside--and we weren't sure we would get to visit with the girls we came to see. The plan was to demonstrate a LifeStraw Family and to hear what they had to say about clean water and the impact of waterborne diseases on their lives.

But we waited the rain out and did get to see the girls, just an hour or so later than scheduled. And we got to hear about so much more than just water. Read more...

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

When a woman experiences a pregnancy complication such as pre-term labor, postpartum hemorrhage, or obstructed labor, her life often depends on getting to a healthcare facility fast. But in the hardest-to-reach areas of the world, there are few affordable or available ambulance services willing to travel long distances to pick up the woman. This transportation delay significantly increases a woman’s risk of dying or experiencing a serious injury during childbirth. Read more...

We are so excited to announce the winners of the “Women Bloggers Deliver” competition! Over the past few weeks, we received over 250 applications from bloggers around the world – from California to Kenya, and from Mexico to Iraq. The competition, a partnership between Women Deliver and Vestergaard Frandsen, was held to draw focus and attention to the just launched Carbon for Water project, a public health intervention that will contribute significantly to health and development efforts that are transforming the lives of families and communities hard hit by the lack of clean water. The three winning bloggers will accompany community workers as they distribute LifeStraw® Family water filters to almost a million households in Kakamega, Kenya. Read more...

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

By 2030, more than 5 billion people will be living in urban settings, a trend that will have the greatest effect in Asia and Africa. Health care services in urban areas have not caught up with the rapid pace of population growth, leaving much of the urban poor without access to healthcare.

This week, at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Maternal Health Task Force, UNFPA, and USAID co-hosted a policy dialogue series focusing on the state of maternal health in urban slums. Despite the relative proximity and concentration of health centers in urban compared to rural areas, poor women are still not able to access quality maternal health care. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver, and Nalini Saligram, Founder & CEO of Arogya World; originally posted on the Huffington Post

There are times in the history of the world when the actions of people with foresight and wisdom have averted crises on a mass scale. We are hopeful that this will be another of those times, and that the 100th observance of International Women's Day on March 8 will be the catalyst. Read more...

March 8^th will mark the 100^th anniversary of International Women’s Day, a day when thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. To commemorate, CARE USA will host the CARE Conference and International Women’s Day Celebration March 8 – 10, 2011 in Washington, DC. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, President of Women Deliver

I was honored to attend the first meeting of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Womens and Childrens Health that was held in Geneva at WHO Headquarters on Wednesday, 26 January 2011. President Kikwete of Tanzania and Prime Minister Harper of Canada co-chair the Commission, with the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, Hamadoun Toure, and the Director General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, as vice chairs. The 30 members of the Commission (“Commissioners”) were chosen from a wide range of stakeholder groups including governments, international organizations, civil society, the private sector, foundations and academia, and Women Deliver is proud to be one of the civil society representatives. The time-line of the Commission is expected to be both brief and intense, and the action plan has ambitious goals to focus on results and resources. Read more...

As we approach the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (8 March 2011), we want to put a spotlight on the "Women Deliver 100: the most inspiring individuals delivering for women." This year marks 100 years of International Women's Day having been celebrated around the world. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Women Deliver is creating a list of advocates, activists, policymakers, artists, journalists, philanthropists, and overall change-makers who are truly “delivering for women.” Want to get in on the fun? Tell us your ideas of who should be added to the list by clicking through.

Looking back over the past year, we have much to celebrate. The following list is not exhaustive, but recaps some of the most prominent maternal health-related milestones and events of 2010. As we push forward into 2011, we celebrate both the successes and solutions of the past year, as well as the barriers to success we can learn from in order to streamline our strategies to best reach MDG 5. Click through to read the top 10 highlights.

• Haz clic aquí para leer este mensaje en Español.
• Cliquez ici pour lire ce message en Français.