Updates

By: Rati Bishnoi, Special Projects Intern at Women Deliver

Recently released results from a one-year family planning project in Albania show that peer education and a media campaign—including TV and radio ads—about the benefits of modern contraceptive methods were associated with increased awareness, better attitudes, and greater use. Read more...

By: Esther Agbarakwe, one of the Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders from Nigeria

Last week I had the rare opportunity of co-hosting a dinner to celebrate women as part of the Global Dinner Party to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. The dinner was organized by the Nigeria Health Campaign of the White Ribbon Alliance in Nigeria in partnership with Save the Children Nigeria. Our focus was to enlighten the media about commitments made by Nigeria's government in support of the UN Secretary General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health. Read more...

By: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

This year, world population will hit 7 billion. With this major milestone occurring in my first year as Executive Director of UNFPA, I have an interesting and unique opportunity in leading the organization’s priorities.

One major focus will be today’s large generation of young people. There are an estimated 1.8 billion adolescents and youth aged 10 to 24, accounting for nearly a quarter of the planet's population. Just below 90 per cent of them live in developing countries and that proportion will increase during the next 20 years. They want freedom, participation and dignity and their decisions will define the future. Read more...

TIME Magazine has recently published a great article addressing the need to focus more development aid on girls and recognizing those who are empowering teen girls to give back to the global community. Nancy Gibbs, the author of the piece, highlights the sad fact that "the leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19 worldwide is not accident or violence or disease; it is complications from pregnancy. Girls under 15 are up to five times as likely to die while having children than are women in their 20s, and their babies are more likely to die as well." It's this tragedy that Women Deliver is working so hard to change. Read more...

In the January 2011 issue of Impact Magazine, former president of Ireland and human rights activist Mary Robinson is interviewed by Heather Kitt, a medical student and Global Changemaker. Click through to read an excerpt of the interview.

By: Mariko Rasmussen, Communications Specialist at Women Deliver

In Guatemala, young indigenous girls living in rural areas often do not have a chance to go to school. Instead, they help their families, living in social isolation and sometimes chronic poverty. They often marry young and have many children – the country’s fertility rates are among the highest in Latin America, with each woman bearing an average of 4.4 children over her lifetime. These indigenous girls have limited access to basic services such as water, sanitation, passable roads, and health care. To help break the cycle and enable these girls to reach their full potential, the Population Council, in collaboration with other partners, launched a program called Abriendo Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities) in 2004. Read more...

With only a few days left until the New Year, it’s easy to feel like 2010 is already over. But it’s not too late to do something this month! Read our recap of the Top 10 Maternal Health Highlights in 2010 to celebrate all the hard work and successes of the year. Then, click through to check out some opportunities to keep your momentum going.

It’s been five months since the Women Deliver 2010 conference where the world put a spotlight on maternal health and the approximately 350,000 women who die from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth every year. We need to keep that energy going! Need some inspiration and some ideas? Read on for 10 actions and opportunities you can take right now:

By: Madeline Taskier, Partnership Coordinator at Women Deliver

The Preston Auditorium at the World Bank is an unlikely place for a hip-hop concert--especially a concert with a significant focus on women and girls. However, yesterday I attended the Adolescent Girls Initiative (AGI) Event hosted by the World Bank and the Nike Foundation where energy and optimism flowed through the venue as passionate activists, performers, and leaders came to celebrate progress for adolescent girls. Read more...

Launched today, in anticipation of the UN Summit on the MDGs, is a new media initiative that draws artists and activists together behind one goal: improving maternal health, the fifth MDG, on which progress has lagged most.

Cofounded by Emmy-winning filmmaker Lisa Russell and Grammy-winning singer Maya Azucena, MDGFive.com includes creative content by world-renowned musicians and poets, including Zap Mama, DJ Spooky, Toni Blackman, and Carlos Andrés Gómez, as well as visual material from filmmakers and photographers Christy Turlington Burns, Paul Blackthorne, and Azfar Rizvi. The site features a “remixer” that can be used to create short videos using a library of music tracks, spoken word, film, and photos supplied by renowned mixed media artists from Brazil, Honduras, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and other countries.