Women's Views on News |
| Discuss reproductive health online Posted: 15 Jul 2013 08:58 AM PDT
If you knew that a relatively modest investment in women's sexual and reproductive health would yield stunningly high returns in terms of the physical and economic health of your nation, why wouldn't you do it? Money talks, but a surprising number of the world's financial ministers, particularly those in developing nations, still are not listening when it comes to funding in this area. A recent World Bank report, ‘Investing in Reproductive Health: Closing the Deadly Gap Between What We Know and What We Do’, released at the recent Women Deliver 2013 conference, demonstrates that there are large economic incentives to invest in reproductive health: increased labour productivity, increased household wealth as well as broader economic – and human – returns. These for a start: Labour productivity: With women making up about 40 percent of the global workforce, reductions in fertility, maternal mortality and morbidity can eliminate lost earnings by women and the family members who must make up the loss. Reduced health expenditures: Improved reproductive health services can mitigate the kind of catastrophic health costs associated with maternal illness and death that can devastate families financially and emotionally. Impact on future generations: Children of healthy mothers are more likely to be born healthy, go to school and have brighter futures in the workplace. Broader economic impact: Reduced fertility and maternal mortality shifts the population equation away from dependency and toward greater productivity, allowing nations to claim the "demographic dividend" of more rapid growth in gross domestic product. The panel will be moderated by Lisa Anderson, North America correspondent and women's rights editor for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Join the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the World Bank on Wednesday, 17 July, 2013 at 3pm London time for a live online discussion on sexual and reproductive health. A panel of experts will explore the major barriers to implementing strong policies and interventions to support sexual and reproductive health, and will seek to identify positive ways forward. The expert panel includes: Jeni Klugman, Director of Gender and Development, World Bank, and author of the report Investing in Reproductive Health. Prior to her current role Klugman was the lead author of three global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme, and she has published a number of books, papers and reports on topics ranging from poverty reduction strategies and labour markets to conflict, health reform, education and decentralization. Alicia Ely Yamin, JD MPH, is lecturer on Global Health and director of the Program on Health Rights of Women and Children at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Yamin's 20-year career at the intersection of health, human rights and development has included the prestigious Joseph H. Flom Fellow on Global Health and Human Rights at Harvard Law School and Director of Research and Investigations at Physicians for Human Rights. Yamin has published dozens of articles and books relating to health and human rights, and has been awarded multiple distinctions in respect of her work on health and human rights. Rafael Cortez, Senior Economist in the World Bank Health, Nutrition and Population unit. Cortez leads the population and reproductive health research program, focusing on sexual and reproductive health among adolescents, results-based financing, impact evaluation and health equity with special focus on women’s and children’s health. Join in the discussion: Wednesday, 17 July, 2013 at 3pm. Join the online discussion live here and send your comments or questions to their panelists using the hashtag #reprohealthinvest or directly on the site platform.  |
| Posted: 15 Jul 2013 04:00 AM PDT
Music: July 15 Black Women In The Arts present Bashiyra 'The Voice' at The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Street, London, N16 8AZ at 8pm This is part of The Dalston People's Festival, and Black Women In The Arts (BWA) present Bashiyra 'The Voice' with guest support Onita Boone from Germany and introducing Xenia (UK) at a special acoustic pre-album launch: her second album 'Independent' and an EP are imminent. A multi-award winning singer, songwriter, producer and arranger, Bashiyra has shared a stage with the likes of Patti La Belle and Diana Ross, and performed at the opening of the Paralympics. With an eclectic repertoire spanning reggae, dance, neo-soul, funk and jazz, Bashiyra has an ability to captivate, move and entertain her audiences. Tonight she is joined by Wayne Brown on piano (Ruby Turner/Earth Wind and Fire). The Dalston People's Festival, is a week-long programme running from 13-21 July, of political and cultural events organised by community group Hackney Unites. Proposed events include a 'Human Library' where visitors would meet Dalston residents such as artists, asylum seekers, bankers, politicians and students who would talk about their lives. Comedy: July 21 Kate Smurthwaite and Jessica Fostekew at the Round Table pub, St martin’s Lane, off Leicester Square, London, WC2N 4AL at from 7.30pm Kate Smurthwaite in The News At Kate 2013: My Professional Opinion Comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite is often found on TV and radio shows like BBC Breakfast, The Moral Maze and The Big Questions. Her unashamedly high-brow, left-wing, feminist, atheist show asks how and why we form and change our minds. For more info, click here. Jessica Fostekew in Moving Jessica's wonder-filled third show regales us with the glorious realities of moving in with a hoarder and out of a crack den full of nurses with giant dogs like zebras. So don't worry, it's not all about transport and crying (it is a bit about crying). She's been busily in and out of trouble and up and down the world but luckily she stands (almost) still for an hour in this show, just to tell you all the funniest things about moving. All profits kindly donated to Eaves, a charity working with women who are victims of violence. Activism: One hundred years ago thousands of women walked to London from all across Britain, starting from as far away as Lands End and Newcastle, converging in Hyde Park, London on 26 July 1913. This year a fabulous woman in Brighton is co-ordinating a route from Brighton to London starting on Sunday 21 July and ending in Hyde Park on the Saturday 27 July. It will be split into sections so that people can do a whole day walking, or half a day, or just meet us somewhere for lunch. For more info about Walk for Women, and the other walks being organised throughout the country, click here.  |
| Posted: 15 Jul 2013 01:09 AM PDT
Anyone near the Shard last week would have seen an interesting sight: six Greenpeace campaigners scaling the building in protest at Shell's plans to drill in the Arctic. At the top of the 310-metre highbuilding, the tallest in the European Union, they unfurled a 'Save the Arctic' flag for all to see. All six campaigners were experienced climbers and also, as it turns out, women – a fact that has escaped few in the media. They were Victoria Henry, 32, a Canadian living in Hackney, Ali Garrigan, 27, from Nottinghamshire, Sabine Huyghe, 33, from Belgium, Sandra Lamborn, 29, from Sweden, Liesbeth Deddens, 31, from the Netherlands and Wiola Smul, 34, from Poland. The Telegraph’s Toby Young, somewhat inexplicably, referred to the decision to cast an all-female team for the climb as 'sexist', because in choosing women to do something which requires female strength, Greenpeace were 'implicitly accepting that women are the weaker sex.' Perhaps they were simply the best people for the job? Trollish comments on twitter, predictable as always, asked whether the women could clean the windows while they were there. Yet people shouldn't have found it quite so surprising that the climbing team was all female. After all, women have been climbing mountains, rocks and buildings for centuries, not only meeting men's achievements but surpassing them. The following is not even close to an exhaustive list, but merely a lightning quick snapshot at some of women's extraordinary achievements in climbing history. Marie Paradis was only 18 when she became the first woman to reach the top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, on 14 July 1808 (or 1811, sources differ). She was working as a servant in a Chamonix inn when her guide friends persuaded her to go along with them. The climb was hard, and she had to be assisted part of the way, but she made it. She didn't become a media sensation, but Alexandre Dumas, author of the three mousketeers, recorded her story on one of his visits to Chamonix. Paradis also featured in Mark Twain's novel, 'A Tramp Abroad'. Gertrude Bell is one of the few women to have a mountain named after her: Getrudspitze in the Swiss Alps, after she climbed the mountain in 1901. Bell became the first person to climb all the mountains in the Engelhorn range of the Swiss Alps. She later became better known for her political work in the Middle East and involvement in the creation of the state of Iraq at the end of the first world war. Annie Smith Peck was 58 years old when she set the record for the highest climb in the western hemisphere in 1908, having been the first person to climb Mount Huascarán in Peru. Women were already using climbing to reflect political stances in her day; she unfurled a 'Votes for Women' banner at the top of Mount Coropuna in Peru in 1911. In 1975 an all-female Japanese climbing team set out to scale Everest. Although they were hit by an avalanche during their ascent, they reached the summit twelve days later and Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of the mountain. Women fare just as well in rock climbing. In a list by Camp Roxx of the world's top ten rock climbers, three are women. Lynn Hill is perhaps one of the most famous women rock climbers. She broke climbing records for men and women alike and encouraged more women to pick up the sport. In 1979 she became the first person to free climb Ophir Broke in Colorado, at the time the hardest route to have been climbed by a woman. This was really only the beginning. She continued climbing and competing throughout the 1980s, encouraging more and more women to join the sport, before becoming the first person ever to free climb the Nose in 1993. The Nose is one of the climbing routes up El Capitan in the California's Yosemite valley. Hill completed the ascent in 23 hours, a record which she held for over a decade, until Tommy Caldewell bested it in 2005. The future for women's climbing looks bright. Today's best female free-climber is only 19 years old. Sasha Di Giulian ranks number one in the world for women's outdoor climbing and is reigning US champion, having won the US championship three times in a row. These trailblazers represent only the smallest fraction of women climbers. With that in mind, is it really so surprising that the Greenpeace climbing team turned out to be all women?  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |