Women deliver

The Women Deliver conference gets underway today in Washington DC and runs until 9 June, brings the international community together to seek improved health outcomes for women and children.

This year’s special theme is on “delivering SOLUTIONS for girls and women” and focuses on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) five - to improve reproductive and maternal health.

Delegates from all over the world, including representatives from governments, international institutions, foundations and civil society, are expected to attend the conference. DFID officials will host a consultation session of experts from around the world on how to better gather and use maternal and newborn mortality data at the local level. Officials will also participate in sessions on family planning and the UN’s drive to advance progress on women and children’s health.

Women Deliver is an advocacy organisation that works globally to generate political commitment and finance for MDG 5.

Part of the conference will focus on what is being done towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 which have set targets for reducing child and maternal mortality in developing countries by 2015.

Such work is documented in the Countdown to 2015 report which was issued in the US yesterday (June 3). This will be discussed at the conference and will highlight the progress of effort underway in 68 countries where more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths occur.

Professor Wendy Graham and Dr Julia Hussein from the University of Aberdeen’s Immpact* - a global research initiative, the aim of which is to promote better health for mothers and babies in developing countries - have contributed to the Countdown report.

Professor Graham - Principal Investigator of Immpact, whose objectives are closely linked with the MillenniumDevelopment Goals 4 and 5 — is also speaking at the conference.

She said: “It is a great privilege to be invited to present at this prestigious event. This is an important opportunity to highlight the huge gaps in access to care which can be masked by using national averages.

“In some countries, for example, women are 10 times more likely to deliver with a health professional if they live in towns and cities than in rural areas. This helps to explain why deaths among mothers and babies remain so high amongst rural populations.”

Webcasts from the conference will be available on the Women Deliver 2010 website.

Speaker

United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, and the Vice President of Malawi, Joyce Banda

Hosted by

United Nations

Venue

Washington DC