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International Women’s Day Marks 99 Years of Progress   
Mar. 6, 2009 – International Women’s Day this year brings both celebrations of global progress and new efforts against continuing discrimination against women and lack of investment in their health. The United Nations expects more than 730 events in 50 countries to mark the 99th anniversary of the drive for equality for half the planet’s population – at home, under law, at work and in government. Conceived at a women’s conference in Copenhagen in 1910 as a way to celebrate women’s contributions, the day gained momentum during the suffrage movement and became a worldwide celebration. Now women and girls on average enjoy better health, more rights and longer lives than their grandmothers did, but the average disguises serious disparities. In Nigeria, for example, one in every 18 women has a lifetime risk of dying from complications of pregnancy and delivery, among the world’s highest rates. Only one in every 4,800 U.S. women will die of such causes. The global toll is more than 536,000 women every year – one per minute – nearly all in developing countries. AIDS has reversed gains in life expectancy in some areas: 17.5 million women are living with HIV, and three of every four of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet more than 200 million couples do not have access to contraceptive services that could both prevent HIV infection and help them space their children at healthier intervals.
The United Nations focus this year is on ending violence against women, with some nations also targeting women’s health care needs and others promoting women’s role in government. CEDPA’s programs include projects in all three areas. Violence affects at least one of every three women during her lifetime in the form of physical abuse, rape or such things as acid burnings, honor killings and female genital cutting. CEDPA works with local partners to combat violence against women through youth advocacy and public education. In 1999, CEDPA helped form the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in India, where more women die in pregnancy and childbirth than in any other country – over 100,000 every year. As the organization’s secretariat, CEDPA has mobilized government action and reached hundreds of millions of people with messages on preventing these tragic deaths through family planning and education, skilled care during labor and delivery, and access to emergency obstetric care in case of complications. In northern Nigeria, CEDPA and local faith-based organizations send teams of community health extension workers door-to-door to deliver family planning information and services as a part of the Family Welfare project.
In addition to local programs, CEDPA’s Advancing Women’s Leadership and Advocacy for AIDS Action initiative provides women leaders with the knowledge and skills to strengthen and lead the global response to AIDS. CEDPA alumna Olayina Jegede-Ekpe made headlines when she was 19 by becoming the first Nigerian woman to reveal she was HIV-positive. Her AIDS Alliance is one of many organizations giving young people knowledge, skills and confidence to defy the stigma that drives the pandemic’s spread. At the same time, CEDPA programs train women to become advocates to make governments more responsive and accountable to the needs of women and families. In Nigeria, CEDPA led projects supporting women voters in the last three elections, mobilizing them to call for policies and programs addressing the cultural and religious barriers to their political participation. In Nepal, where two-thirds of women and girls are illiterate, CEDPA has worked since 1988 to improve access to education and mobilize women to become advocates for their social, educational and reproductive health needs. CEDPA’s goal for International Women’s Day is to make it another day of progress for women and girls everywhere in becoming effective agents of change for development in their communities. |
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