Huge, huge news: Just now, at the Women Deliver conference in DC, Melinda Gates announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is committing $1.5 billion in grants toward maternal, newborn and child health over the next five years.
Specifically, these grants will include training frontline health care workers, introducing low-cost, effective interventions to stem newborn infections and treat birth complications, and educating mothers about simple lifesaving practices like keeping newborns warm with their body heat.
Below is an excerpt from her remarkable speech:
Today, we are committing to make new grants totaling $1.5 billion over the next five years to support family planning, maternal and child health, and nutrition programs in developing countries.
This new pledge will complement our spending in other areas that affect women’s and children’s health, such as developing and delivering children’s vaccines, and preventing pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and HIV/AIDS.
I’m also making women’s and children’s health my personal priority as co-chair of the Gates Foundation.
My commitment to you is that I will continue to talk to leaders in rich countries about making funding pledges and following through on them. I will continue to talk to leaders in poor countries about making women and children a policy priority.
We will continue having this conversation about the work we’re doing together. We hold the future in our hands.
ONE’s Erin Hohlfelder is at the actual conference with Melinda now and will report back more soon.
Last night I had the privilege of moderating a fantastic interactive conference call with Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Melanne Verveer—the first-ever U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. The call was a great opportunity to speak directly with ONE members about the fight against global poverty, including our new initiative Women ONE2ONE. As I said on the call, we may be faced with overwhelming statistics about the inordinate burden poverty places on women, but it’s most important that we focus on the more positive fact—that women are one of the best investments in global development and are really key to improving education, healthcare, agriculture and economic progress in communities across the developing world.
It was really an honor to get to hear firsthand from Melinda and Melanne about why they’ve personally become engaged on these issues and to hear about steps they’re taking through the Gates Foundation and the U.S. government to address them. During the call, more than 4,000 ONE members from all over the country had the chance to ask questions directly and to participate in real time via a live Facebook feed. We got some great comments and questions. In case you missed the call, you can listen to it in full below.
Full call:
Melinda Gates:
Ambassador Melanne Verveer:
Erin Thornton:
PS- During the call, I mentioned a petition ONE members can sign right now, encouraging our senators to sign on to a letter calling for the Senate Budget Committee to uphold President Obama’s $58.5 billion International Affairs Budget. You can add your voice here.
If you haven’t already done so, definitely RSVP for tonight’s interactive conference call with Melinda Gates and Ambassador Melanne Verveer.
On the call we’ll get a fresh look at the fight against global poverty, and what ONE members can do right now to ensure our voices are heard. The call will begin promptly at 7:30 PM (EST), so be sure to RSVP here.
Next Monday, March 29, ONE will be hosting an interactive conference call with Melinda Gates and Ambassador Melanne Verveer.
This will be a great opportunity for ONE members to hear directly from ONE and from these two women to hear more about what’s happening on the ground, and how smart programs are transforming lives—particularly for women—in the world’s poorest places.
RSVP here, and feel free to invite your friends and family to join.
Big news: Next Monday, March 29, ONE will be hosting an interactive conference call with Melinda Gates and Melanne Verveer, the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.
On the call–which will take place at 7:30 PM (EST)– we’ll talk about how smart programs are transforming lives in the world’s poorest places- particularly for women. RSVP here to join us next Monday.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
