Fistula Hospital Plan Is A Great Investment For American Foreign Aid In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof examines a new plan to tackle obstetric fistula, “a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown.” According to Kristof,…

“India is falling behind other countries in meeting international commitments to improve obstetric care because it does not adequately monitor deaths and injuries in the critical period following childbirth and fix gaps in its health system and programmes,” Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, the Hindu reports.

Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and head of the Maternal Mortality Campaign, highlighted global maternal mortality at the Royal College of Midwives annual conference on Friday, the U.K. Press Association reports.

Independent Examines Aid To Ethiopia In an article that examines larger aid-related questions and themes, the Independent explores the effects of the Band Aid campaign in Ethiopia 25 years after it first attempted to help famine victims in the country. Band Aid’s “Bob Geldof [recently] went back to Africa to see…

Global Health Is A Top Foreign Policy IssuesFor 2011 In response to a story examining 2011’s top foreign policy issues, Serra Sippel, president of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, writes in a letter to the editor, published in The Hill, that “[g]lobal health was disturbingly absent from” the story. “Global…

During Surprise Stop In Yemen, Sec. Clinton To Highlight U.S. Commitment To Country’s Development U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Yemen Tuesday “on a diplomatically sensitive mission to broaden America’s relationship with this impoverished Arab country, a haven for Al Qaeda that has nurtured several recent terror…

On the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday, the General Assembly of the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA) gathered to discuss the continent’s progress against HIV/AIDS, Walta Info reports.

Reproductive Health Bill Is Approved By Philippines House Of Representatives IRIN reports a “hotly debated” bill “that proposes national funding for, and access to, reproductive healthcare services and products,” cleared “a major hurdle on [Monday] after being approved by a committee of the Philippines House of Representatives” (2/1). Biliran Rep. Rogelio…

IRIN/PlusNews Examines Efforts To Integrate HIV/AIDS Treatment And Maternal, Child Health Care IRIN/PlusNews examines Kenya’s efforts to integrate maternal and child health care and HIV/AIDS services as a way to ensure more pregnant women and mothers living with HIV/AIDS receive the treatment they need. The article describes the success of…

Kicking off the two-week 55th Annual Session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in New York on Tuesday, Michelle Bachelet, the first under-secretary-general and executive director of U.N. Women, highlighted the role of gender equality in country development, peace and security, Angola Press reports (2/23). The commission draws together government officials, U.N. representatives, and members of the private sector and civil society groups, according to a U.N. press release (2/22).