Marking International Women’s Day at the White House Monday, President Barack Obama vowed to fight for gender equality at home and abroad, Agence France-Presse reports. The president marked the event with First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, AFP reports.

2010 To Be ‘Decisive Year’ For Global Health, Global Fund Director Says In a BusinessDay opinion piece, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine reflects on the organization’s progress and impact on global health outcomes since its creation in 2002, as detailed in…

“Nearly 100 million women across Asia have ‘disappeared’ because of a huge and growing gender gap that has fatally deprived them of access to health care and food and has led to widespread abortions of female fetuses, according to a U.N. report released Monday,” the Associated Press reports.

WHO Bulletin Examines Communicable Diseases In Southeast Asia The WHO’s March Bulletin is a special themed issue focusing on communicable diseases in Southeast Asia. The publication addresses tuberculosis, cholera, neglected tropical diseases and family planning in the region (March 2010). Ahead Of International Women’s Day, Lancet Editorial Calls For Increased Investment…

“U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked International Women’s Day Wednesday calling for gender equality and the empowerment of women, saying that until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice; peace, security and sustainable development stand in jeopardy,” VOA News reports.

A Refugees International report, released on Tuesday, says U.N. aid efforts in Haiti since the earthquake have not been sufficiently coordinated with local groups, the New York Times reports. Among other things, the lack of coordinated response has enabled sexual abuse of women and girls in temporary camps, according to Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the report. She said some young girls have been trading sex for shelter and noted that there is no night watch system in the camps, which are housing many of Haiti’s homeless earthquake survivors, according to the newspaper.

UNAIDS on Tuesday launched a five-year initiative to help tackle gender inequalities and human rights violations that increase the vulnerability of women worldwide to HIV/AIDS, BBC reports (3/3).

Despite gains in women’s rights in the 15 years since the Beijing Declaration, U.N. Female Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro on Monday during the opening of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting acknowledged more action was needed to help countries advance gender equality and women’s empowerment, VOA News reports.

Ahead of the two-week U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which kicks off Monday in New York, Inter Press Service features a Q&A with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), who highlights some of the goals of the meeting. As part of CSW, world leaders are expected to discuss gender equality in the context of the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the 1994 Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The BBC examines the recent efforts by microfinance institutions (MFIs) to “provide a credit lifeline to millions of deprived people in some of the poorest countries of the world,” especially women. The piece describes the work of the non-profit Women’s World Banking (WWB), which, together with several MFIs focusing on women, is holding workshops across South Asia.