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By Renuka Gadde, Vice President, Global Health, BD A health center in the Morogoro region of Tanzania is staffed by a single midwife. She is trained to refer patients early if any complications arise during labor, but the referral system is not robust. The patient – now in a complicated stage of labor – would have to walk from the clinic, high on a hill, to the nearest road about 10 kilometers away, to then […]

By Abby Stewart, UN Foundation Public Affairs Summer 2017 Intern Editor’s Note: Donate to the UN’s Humanitarian Fund in Yemen to help humanitarian partners reach vulnerable people with aid. The civilian toll of the conflict in Yemen continues to grow. Years of the fighting have devastated the country’s health, water, and sanitation systems, contributing to what is now the worst cholera outbreak in the world. Recently, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and World Health Organization

By Sarah Craven, Director, Washington Office of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund A hurricane brings wind and rain. It can bring destruction and even death. But for one midwife in Haiti, a hurricane brought her life. Six lives, to be exact. On October 4, 2016, category-4 Hurricane Matthew violently struck southwestern Haiti, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in the tiny nation since 2010. Marie-Lirette Casimir, a midwife working for UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, was

By Katie Dahlstrom, Nestlé Corporate Communications Manager and Helen Medina, Nestlé Senior Public Affairs Manager, Government and Multilateral Relations Clean water is one of the few things in life that never fails to live up to expectations. It is difficult to overstate the importance of having it. In fact, it’s probably impossible. Clean water changes almost everything. This is also why access to and management of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene are included in the Sustainable

A woman’s basic human right to plan her family and her future does not go away when disaster strikes. But amid some of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time, the needs of girls and women are often neglected. Right now, more than 32 million girls and women of reproductive age worldwide are in need of humanitarian assistance – that’s roughly half the population of France. These girls and women face significant health risks in

By Nathan Benson, UN Foundation Summer 2017 Public Affairs Intern According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, roughly 400 million people around the world do not have access to any essential health services, and many families in low- and middle-income countries are being pushed further into extreme poverty because of exorbitant health care costs. That is why achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is a key priority for WHO and the new

By Amanda Kabonero  Editor’s Note: Click here to donate to help humanitarian partners provide life-saving aid to those threatened by famine. On Tuesday, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will convene for a hearing on the four looming famines, which United Nations agencies regard as one of the worst humanitarian emergencies since World War II. A recent poll from the International Rescue Committee found that only 15% of Americans knew about

How is the world doing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our collective blueprint for a healthy planet, free of crushing poverty and injustice? The “Sustainable Development Goals Report 2017,” released by the United Nations today during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development assesses where we stand on reaching the SDGs. The UN notes: “While considerable progress has been made over the past decade across all areas of development, the pace of progress

On Nelson Mandela International Day, and with the topic of gender equality top of the agenda at the United Nations this week as countries review their progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, I couldn’t help from reflecting on Nelson Mandela’s – or Madiba, as we fondly call him in South Africa – approach toward gender equality and women. Mandela was released in February 1990 after spending 27 painful and cruel years behind prison bars and