Having recently returned from an international meeting of a committee of the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides in England, I am acutely aware of how important leadership of women and girls is to international development, health and peace. It steps up my commitment to make sure that we are supporting women as leaders in the public and private sectors and grooming and electing women at every level of government and for global service.

This is also one of the conclusions of authors, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide", which was on my summer reading list. The authors make a compelling case for women’s issues as the next frontier in international health and development. They describe programs that work in empowering and healing women suffering from human trafficking, rape and abuse, bride burnings, unwanted pregnancies, and fistula and other complications of childbirth. Maternal mortality is presented as a human rights violation.

It is this perspective that I believe has influenced these newsworthy recent developments:

·         the publication of "Deadly Delivery: the Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA" by Amnesty International, which cites many MCH members and their research.  Also go to www.amnestyusa.org to check out Amnesty’s Demand Dignity Campaign, to end the human rights abuses that are both cause and consequence of poverty. (See article on the report below.)

·         the announcement that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.5 billion in a joint push with the United Nations to improve the health of women and children, while launching a lobbying effort to get governments and other non-profit groups on board.  According to a Reuters report, Bill Gates and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described a comprehensive approach through 2014 to help women deliver babies safely and plan healthy families. The program includes access to contraception and incorporates current vaccination and nutrition programs.  "The women and children are always last in line for health issues," Ban said. "It's just morally unacceptable ... This is a real human rights issue."  For more information, go to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/foundationnotes.

What are you doing in this arena? Is this something we should be talking about at this year’s MCH town meeting? Let me know your thoughts.

All the best,

JoAnne

JoAnne Fischer

Chair, MCH Section

APHA

jfischer@momobile.org