GlobalPost on Sunday published two articles examining family planning and maternal mortality in Malawi.

One article explains how the U.S. government worked in cooperation with Malawi’s Muslim community to expand family planning programs (Donnelly, 6/26).

Another article, part of a series called “Healing the World,” looks at the challenges the Global Health Initiative has faced in improving maternal health in Malawi. GlobalPost writes the GHI program in Malawi “is poised to expand,” but the initiative’s “challenge today comes from an entirely different source: an eruption of political battles between the Malawi government and its foreign donors that threatens to disrupt the continuation of even basic services.”

“Over the last year, the problems have multiplied to include corruption charges against the system of buying drugs and supplies; the enforcement of an anti-gay law; the Global Fund’s rejection of a $565 million plan due to mostly technical reasons; and a recent high-stakes staredown between Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika and the British government that has led to the suspension of future Department for International Development (DFID) funding totaling $121 million annually,” GlobalPost writes (Donnelly, 6/26).