In case you missed it, exciting news came out of the opening session of the UN General Assembly last Monday: after nearly three years of negotiations, member states voted to create a UN agency for women.

The new agency’s mandate will be to “promote the rights and well-being of women worldwide and to work towards gender equality.” Currently, the UN’s gender programs are scattered across various agencies through four different programs: UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). The new entity will be headed by an Under-Secretary General who reports to the UN’s Secretary General, on par with agencies like UNICEF and UNHCR.

Groups that have been campaigning for the body (such as Gender Equality Architecture Reform, or GEAR) hope that a composite, super-agency will not only raise the prominence of gender issues on the global agenda but also boost funding for women through the UN, which they say has been low under the current structure. GEAR and others are calling for $1 billion in start-up money for the new agency (for comparison, the 2007 budgets for UNICEF and UNIFEM in 2007 were $129 million and $3 billion, respectively).

There is no doubt that the step is a good one for the world’s women, especially those living in the world’s poorest countries. For over two decades, development experts have been saying that countries who invest in education, health and economic opportunities for their women see greater results in poverty reduction and development across the board. Yet while some progress has been made in improving the lives of women around the globe (through expanded access to microfinance and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, for example), the fact remains that women are still bearing the brunt of extreme poverty and disease and in many countries, are systematically excluded from the economy and politics and living in fear of violence and rape.

The UN decision follows other signs that momentum is building for a renewed effort to tackle global women’s issues. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama created the first ever Office on Global Women’s Issues in his Administration (with veteran women’s advocate Melanne Verveer at its head) and in Congress, Senator Barbara Boxer now chairs a subcommittee with global women’s issues in its purview. The need to invest in women was also a recurring key theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Africa, and this past month both the Clinton Global Initiative and the New York Times have highlighted the topic in a major way.

So it seems that everyone- and now the UN- agrees: women are key to a healthier, more prosperous and stable world. The challenge is now to translate this growing consensus into action. At the UN, details on the new agency will be ironed out over the coming months after Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon comes up with a proposal to member states on the body’s mission, funding, structure and oversight. The first indication of how much muscle the new agency will have. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the FY011 budget should be a good sign of where the Administration’s priorities lie and how they match with Congress. We’ll be watching these developments at ONE closely, so stay tuned here for news from both fronts.

-Nora Coghlan

The Mother’s Day Every Day Campaign (led by the White Ribbon Alliance and CARE), and the Huffington Post continue their “Mother’s Day Every Day for Healthier Families, Communities and Nations” blog series this week with a post by Amb. Mark Dybul, and a post by Sarah Brown.

Excerpts from Mark Dybul’s post, full piece here:

Some of us in the United States might be preparing to celebrate Mother’s Day with a backyard party and are worried about pesky mosquitoes after rains across the country. We should consider ourselves lucky to view mosquitoes as pests: in much of the world, mosquitoes cause malaria and malaria causes around 500 million illnesses and more than 1 million deaths each year.

Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills a child every 30 seconds — several by the time you finish reading this posting. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable because pregnancy reduces a woman’s immunity to malaria, making her more susceptible to infection and increasing the risk of illness, severe anemia and death. For the child, maternal malaria increases the risk of stillbirth, premature delivery and low birth weight. And 80 percent of malaria deaths are among children under 5. Malaria is a major cause of maternal and child death.

Excerpts from Sarah Brown’s post, full piece here:

I’m starting to see more and more discussion on the blogs and in women’s magazines about third wave feminism. It’s like those of us lucky enough to benefit from our mother’s efforts to urge and discover greater freedoms for women are suddenly all thinking ’so now what?’

For me, the discussions of new feminism give us a chance to talk about one of the great insights of the old sort: that women without economic power in the end tend to be denied social, political and personal power too. So if we seriously want our century to be a women’s one, we need to think about what injustices remain for women in the developing world.

I listened recently to the group of African First Ladies gathered together for a health summit in the US and watched them work out how to build their programs and figure out how to put maternal health at the heart of what they do. They recognized readily that this is the keystone to addressing everything else. At some point we must change how we measure our existing work – our programs for international development, for education for all, for combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and polio, for economic empowerment and cultural change. We need to know how well we are doing on maternal mortality, or we won’t know how well we are doing in bringing real justice.

-Margaret McDonnell

LA-based super ONE volunteer Amy Quinn blogged about the First Ladies Heath Summit, a gathering of First ladies from across Africa who met with top global health experts on April 21 and 22 in a first-ever U.S. summit to develop and improve locally-run programs that benefit mothers and children throughout the African continent. Below she talks about day 2.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, take others with you.” (African Wisdom)

This idea of a woman’s power and solidarity amongst women rang out on day two of the African First Ladies Health Summit held at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles on April 21. Panels and discussion ran back to back as First Ladies joined various leading experts in global disease, maternal health and education.

As I listened carefully to each of the speakers, I kept hearing this word, “distance”.

There was a lot of discussion about the problem of distance to skilled emergency care and skilled pre and post-natal care as it directly relates to maternal mortality and again, how maternal health is the “keystone” to achieving all of the other Millennium Development Goals

H.E. Mathato Mosisili, First Lady of Lesotho, stated sadly that 23% of people in Lesotho are infected with HIV/AIDS and that 54% of the people live in poverty. Some women have to walk over 50km to get to the nearest clinic to seek emergency care. There is a desperate need for more “Mother Houses” so that these women can seek medical care closer to home. The distance that people must travel for treatment is one of the primary reasons that people infected with HIV and AIDS are not able to adhere to their anti-retroviral treatment.

Monir Islam, the Director of Making Pregnancy Safer at the World Health Organization really focused on this issue of distance to emergency care. He told us that the number one cause of maternal mortality in Africa is hemorrhage. When a woman hemorrhages, you have only two hours to save her life. He asked the First Ladies- “can you save a life at home?” He challenged them to recall where they delivered their children and to think about where their children will deliver their children. Do they not want the same health care for all the women of Africa that they themselves received? He challenged them to, “Be bold! Challenge your politicians. Mothers should have the right to the best care. We need the political will and the investment.”

H.E. Thandiwe Banda of Zambia talked at great length about the distance to skilled health care. Only 3% of Zambia is on the electric grid. “Sometimes,” she said, “a woman dies because her heath attendant does not have a bicycle – which costs $85.” This moved me because that woman who died because her health care provider could not get to her – what is her life worth? Is it not worth at the very least the $85 bicycle? Perhaps I am simplifying it. I don’t know.

Lynn Freeman, Director of Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program at Columbia University remarked, “Death in pregnancy and childbirth is deeply and profoundly political. It is not a disease. It is not “new” or “fate” or a “function of nature”. Today, virtually every maternal death can be avoided with the proper interventions. Death in pregnancy and childbirth is “man-made” and the solutions are within our grasp. Maternal mortality is not Africa or Asia’s problem – it is the world’s problem. In Africa, 1 in 6 mothers will die in childbirth. In the United States, the maternal morality ratio is 1 in 5000 and in some countries it’s 1 in 47,000. She called on First Ladies to make the issues visible by visiting local and rural health clinics again and again and shining the spotlight on them. She asked them to demand accountability and have zero tolerance for sub-standard health care. The death of a woman in childbirth does not “just happen”.

H.E. Dr. Hajiya Turai Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria told us that a woman in some parts of Africa must ask permission from her husband to go to the hospital. She talked of how they had begun to institute a small ambulance program in which the ambulance would go to the women rather than the women try to figure out a way to get to them.

France Donnay of the Gates Foundation stressed the joy of birth. We should do all we can to ensure the safety and joy of childbirth. The birth of a child only happens once. We are all only born once. Pregnant women only die of a few things and it should be the policy of national plans and programs to address those few things and then follow up to make sure our plans are working.

This theme of maternal health and mortality was echoed by nearly every participant including Sarah Brown, wife of Prime Minister of Great Britain Gordon Brown, and a dedicated champion for the international maternal mortality campaign. In one of many thoughtful statements, she said, we want to work with you to “create a reality where people in your country not only survive, but prosper.” She believes, as many do, that maternal health are the key to all of the MDGs. Without the survival of the mother, none of the other MDGs can be achieved. “A mother’s place is everywhere and always has been,” she remarked. She ensured that if we “build (a health care system) for mothers… you build for everyone.” Sarah Brown’s full keynote speech can be found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-brown/build-for-mothers-and-you_b_189527.html.

-Amy Quinn, ONE Volunteer, Los Angeles

I’m excited to report from the Leadership for Health Summit, where 15 African First Ladies and their delegations are in LA to share their challenges, successes and hopes for their countries. One of the main themes of the Summit is the importance of country-owned leadership and support partnered with sustainable international partnerships and resources. The summit emphasizes the important role the First Ladies can play in linking the communities to the policy recommendations therefore encouraging grassroots progress. There was across-the-board recognition of the challenge of making progress in maternal mortality and the role First ladies can play in raising the profile of this issue on the international development agenda so that successes can be realized. First Ladies were also advised to move away from pet projects and start to approach development concerns in a more comprehensive manner to encourage sustainable interventions.

During the “Tackling HIV/AIDS and Malaria” panel Monday afternoon, Samuel Adenyi-Jones (Director of the Office of Global Health Affairs and African Affairs for the US Department of Health and Human Services) and Steven Philips (Medical Director for ExxonMobil’s Global Issues and Projects) offered specific examples of when local leadership was critical to increasing awareness and inspiring behavior change. Dr Phillips mentioned how former Nigerian president Obasanjo’s public HIV/AIDS test in 2006 helped to open dialogue and work towards decreasing the taboo of testing throughout the country. Jones shared that the Society of Women and AIDS was created due to the persistence and commitment of several African First Ladies. They both thanked the First Ladies for their leadership and reiterated that they have the power to use their position and voice to reach every village.

In the Maternal Health panel, family planning was a strong theme and Dr. Eunice Brookman-Amissah, former Minister of Health, Ghana, and Vice President, IPAS, Africa Alliance, lamented the low use of contraception on the continent which is linked to the 5.5 million unsafe abortions a year responsible for 40% of maternal deaths in Africa. She also emphasized the importance of legalizing abortions as part of a comprehensive health strategy as this could help prevent up to 30% of maternal deaths. Other panelists stressed the importance of leadership once again, and particularly the First Ladies position as role models in encouraging social and behavioral changes, encouraging delayed marriages and delayed first births that could positively impact maternal health.

More to come!

-Margaret McDonnell and Edith Jibunoh

Yesterday, I had the great privilege of attending day one of the first ever African First Ladies Health Summit at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. This magnificent event, held over a two-day period, will attempt to tackle the complicated issues of HIV/AIDS and malaria, maternal health, girl’s education and most importantly, leadership.

As a Californian woman (and an attendee of the the Women’s Conference), it was exciting for me to witness First Lady of California Maria Shriver welcoming 17 African First Ladies to the Leadership for Health Summit today. Maria Shriver said that she understands the challenges and difficulties of being a first lady but remarked on how the position presents an incredible opportunity to make a difference. She said that this Summit is a launching pad for longer-term partnerships and an open dialogue for connecting and sharing journeys, lessons, challenges and successes. In fact, she mentioned that they are exploring ways to expand the Women’s Conference model into the African continent. In her speech, she also made references to existing initiatives and partnerships that work to save and improve lives, such as (RED), which raises millions of dollars for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

As a hunger/poverty activist and an advocate for ONE, I try to seize every opportunity I can to gain a deeper and more thorough knowledge about the issues I advocate. Up until now these have primarily been centered around more and better aid, ensuring that all children have access to health care and education and advocating for a more comprehensive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and other deadly but preventable disease. I had never tackled the issues surrounding maternal health. At the end of the day today, I had learned exactly where maternal mortality fell in to the fight against global poverty and disease and how it is the one MDG that has not shown progress. The issue of maternal mortality is an urgent one and was the key theme of today’s events and discussions.

As I watched these beautiful and powerful women speak to one another and to us, I was inspired by the passion they showed for their countries and could see in them a very common bond and wish for their people, especially their women and children. They want their mothers to have healthy and safe pregnancies and births. They want their girls to grow up educated and not fall victim to too early motherhood or false information fueled by inadequate information and age old taboos. They don’t want their women to have to walk 50km to the nearest clinic to seek medical care. They don’t want their doctors and other health care providers that they have paid to train, leave them for better-funded health facilities in other countries because their own health facilities are ill equipped. 70% of disease in Africa is preventable so why not invest in prevention?

One of the First Ladies remarked that there is an old African adage, “Every pregnant woman has one foot in the grave.” How sad.

The consensus amongst the First Ladies was that what was lacking in Africa was the will of the people. This is where the First Ladies can find their true power. By demonstrating their will, they can be a beacon to the women of their countries. Social change must take place from inside Africa and leadership is needed for this to occur. They stressed the need to mobilize their own communities as well as the need to educate girls to delay their first birth and first marriage. These are just a couple of simple and cost effective ways to fight disease, maternal and infant death and, in the end, poverty.

The African First Ladies Health Summit is the vision of US Doctors for Africa and African Synergy, whose hope is for a broader partnership amongst the wide range of partners attending the summit and the First Ladies themselves. Hopefully together, they can provide these leading women with the tools and support they need to make real and lasting change in Africa.

-Amy Quinn, ONE Volunteer

First ladies from across Africa will meet with a range of top experts in a first-ever U.S. summit to develop and improve locally-run programs that benefit mothers and children throughout the African continent. The Leadership for Health Summit, to take place April 20 and 21 in Los Angeles is a joint effort of U.S. Doctors for Africa and African Synergy, a group formed by 22 first ladies from Africa.

Political leaders and policy experts, as well as representatives from aid organizations, charitable foundations and key businesses, will join the first ladies for the summit. The goal is to forge new partnerships to expand and enhance locally-run programs started by African first ladies. By linking the first ladies with the expertise and resources, organizers hope to improve the health of millions of mothers and children across Africa, saving hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

“Empowering Africa’s first ladies is an innovative approach to bettering the lives of millions of Africans. These are some of Africa’s most important leaders and aiding their efforts is critical,” said Ted Alemayhu, founder of U.S. Doctors for Africa.

During the invitation-only summit, the first ladies of Africa will introduce their domestic and region-wide efforts across Africa, engage in dialogues with other leaders from the field of global health, and set actionable goals for the coming year.

As an organizing partner for the summit, ONE is working to promote the first ladies’ work and leadership and to help develop sustainable partnerships towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The other organizing partners are allAfrica.com, Africare, Global Health Council, the David & Lucille Packard Foundation, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program, Until There’s A Cure Foundation, Vital Voices Global Partnership, White Ribbon Alliance, Women Deliver and the World Health Organization as well as corporate sponsors, Chevron, General Electric, ExxonMobil and the RAND Corporation.

This group of partners looks forward to building greater partnerships around the first ladies’ objectives, as laid out in African Synergy’s founding Statute: “strengthening the spirit of co-operation, partnership and collaboration among stakeholders at national, regional and international levels through a new approach and more active solidarity”; and of “pooling our efforts for more concerted and concrete action in order to alleviate suffering and effectively combat HIV/AIDS (and other scourges)”.

African Synergy’s collaborations include the opening of maternal health clinics, HIV treatment centers, orphan care programs and vocational training schools in Guinea, Niger, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali and Cameroon; as well as numerous other initiatives and advocacy efforts throughout all 22 member countries.

Immediately following the summit, the first ladies of Africa will be honored for their leadership at a gala benefit the evening of April 21, hosted by a committee of Hollywood activists and featuring musical performances by Natalie Cole and South African legendary musician Vusi Mahlasela.

ONE is honored to work in partnership with African SynergyUS Doctors for Africa, a humanitarian organization committed to increasing access to medical care for diseases and conditions affecting the people of Africa. Most of us can echo USDFA’s vision statement — We envision a future for Africa, free from the burden of preventable and treatable diseases and conditions, in which its people can prosper.

To learn more about the Leadership for Health Summit, go to: http://leadershipforhealth.org/. To purchase a ticket for the Gala, go to: http://www.usdfa.org/gala2009/.

-Margaret McDonnell, NGO Partnerships and Faith Relations Team