Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization that works to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling Millennium Development Goal 5, which is improving maternal health. This is a multifactorial approach, involving access to a healthy diet, clean water and sanitation, health services, and appropriate education during pregnancy and childbirth. Women Deliver is targeted towards reducing maternal mortality, achieving universal access to reproductive health, and improving the lives of girls and women globally.
Profile and history
Women Deliver was founded by Jill Sheffield in 2007. That same year, it officially launched at its groundbreaking Women Deliver conference. This conference convened nearly 2,000 clinicians, advocates, policymakers, and businesspeople involved in maternal and reproductive health. Since then, the nongovernmental organization has built on commitments, partnerships, and networks mobilized at the conference to keep the preventable tragedy of maternal health on the global policy agenda and to find solutions across sectors to make safe motherhood a reality for all women. At its heart, Women Deliver's message is that maternal health is both a human right and practical necessity for sustainable development. This is echoed by the group's name and slogan: “Invest in women, it pays.”
Women Deliver Conferences
The first Women Deliver conference was held in London in October 2007. Nearly 2,000 participants (advocates, researchers, policymakers, and global leaders) from 115 countries attended. The conference marked the 20th anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative to support investment in maternal and newborn health.
On June 7 to June 9, 2010, Women Deliver hosted a second global conference in Washington, D.C., drawing nearly 3,500 attendees from 146 countries. The meeting allowed organizations and stakeholders to share best practices and lessons learned and reinvigorate the fight for better health for girls and women.
Women Deliver's third global conference, Women Deliver 2013, was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from May 28–30, 2013. With more than 4,500 participants from 149 countries, the conference was the largest meeting of the decade to focus on the health and empowerment of girls and women. Participants gave over 800 speeches and presentations at the six plenaries and 120 breakout sessions. The program featured issues related to the health and well-being of girls and women, with a particular focus on the post-2015 development framework.
Women Deliver 2013 attracted media attention from all over the globe. There were 415 journalists on-site at the conference, and hundreds more followed the meeting via the Women Deliver 2013 webcast. The conference resulted in more than 1,500 articles written in global media about girls' and women's health and rights.
The fourth Women Deliver's global conference was held in Copenhagen from 16–19 May 2016 following the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launch. The conference's focus was on implementing the SDGs as they relate to girls and women, with a specific emphasis on health – in particular maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights – and the inter-connections with gender equality, education, environment, and economic empowerment.
The 2019 conference was held in Vancouver, Canada, 2–6 June.
Women Deliver's approach
Women Deliver fights for greater investment, increased political will, and overall improved health for girls and women. It raises awareness by highlighting research and field projects, training youth advocates, engaging policymakers and the private sector on maternal health issues, and creating spaces for collaboration and idea generation.
100 Young Leaders Program
As a part of the global Women Deliver 2010 conference, Women Deliver selected 100 Young Leaders from a pool of 6,000 scholarship applicants, representing 59 different countries. For the 2013 conference, the 100 Young Leaders represented 68 different countries. These young leaders were chosen based on their knowledge, skills, and experience in advocating for reproductive health and rights, as well as on their potential to increase advocacy efforts in their local communities.