NEWS
Fact Sheets | Press Releases | Speeches
2008
JAN | FEB | MAR | APRIL | MAY | JUNE | JULY | AUG
SEPTEMBER
September 25, 2008
Mixed Progress on MDG 3 at Midpoint
Today marks the official midpoint to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and progress for MDG 3 - to empower women and promote gender equality — is uneven, according to ICRW.
More girls are enrolled in school, and more women hold political office in national and local government, according to various data analyses. But in the crucial areas of women’s employment and reproductive health, progress has lagged. Worse yet, other priorities cannot be measured due to limited or nonexistent data. For these, we have no idea whether progress is being made, and if so, to what extent.
The MDGs are eight goals established by the United Nations in 2000 to address the world's development challenges. Great strides have been made, but much more remains to be done if the world is to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2015. A global focus that combines the necessary commitment, resources and action will produce results.
Read the MDG media background paper. 
September 23, 2008
ICRW Launches Leadership Council, New Leaders Circle to Drive Investment in Developing World’s Poorest Women
Leaders convene to support investing in women to reduce poverty, promote economic growth
ICRW today launched two new leadership groups comprised of an array of influential decision makers and authorities in politics, business, economics, finance, philanthropy, media, education and the arts to help it advance its mission to empower women, promote gender equality and fight poverty in the developing world.
The ICRW Leadership Council, a team of high-profile leaders on the world stage, and the New Leaders Circle, a group of emerging leaders, join ICRW to raise awareness about the crucial roles women play in sustaining the economies of households and nations, despite the burdens they bear.
“ICRW has demonstrated that providing targeted opportunities for women and girls creates sustainable, gender-equitable social and economic change, and this change ripples through the lives of their families, communities and nations,” says ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta. “We are thrilled that these august thinkers and leaders join ICRW’s call to put women at the forefront of global development.”
Leadership Council members include: Leadership Council chairman, Amartya Sen, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Susan Berresford, Cherie Booth Blair, Richard Blum, Jennifer Buffett, Mohamed El Erian, the Honorable Nancy Gertner, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Hilda Ochoa Brillembourg, Lawrence H. Summers, Nina Totenberg and James Wolfensohn.
New Leaders Circle members include: New Leaders Circle co-chairs Emily Bloomfield and Mona Sutphen, Anisha Abraham, Byron Auguste, Jag Bhalla, Emily Bloomfield, Clara Brillembourg, Mercedes Fitchett, Raj Ganguly, Anna Gelpern, Lynn Jerath, Cheikh Kane, Eliza Leighton, Susan McCue, Katie Schecter, Meryl Stone, Mona Sutphen, Yael (Gayle) Tzemach.
September 2, 2008
Youth Reproductive Health in South Asia
Key Stakeholders Move Research Findings Forward
Youth sexual and reproductive health is a crucial issue for policy-makers in South Asia. ICRW’s Asia Regional Office hosted a series of dissemination meetings in India to share research findings from the Development Initiative Supporting Healthy Adolescents (DISHA) project. The two-year initiative, which ended in June, was aimed at improving youth reproductive health in more than 150 villages in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, where high rates of child marriage, early child-bearing and severe poverty persist.
A national dissemination meeting was held Aug. 22 in Delhi and included local and international NGOs, partner organizations, donors and senior government officials from the office of the prime minister. The importance of sustained community-based youth efforts was discussed among attendees, and program scale-up was identified to further improve adolescent girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health information and support.
Local dissemination meetings also took place in Ranchi, Jharkhand and Patna, Bihar. Key stakeholders, national organizations and government officials from the Jharkhand State Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, discussed results, including increased communication between youth and elders to negotiate reproductive health needs and delayed age at marriage.
Read related media coverage.
AUGUST
August 3, 2008
ICRW, on Creative Capitalism with TIME
Rao Gupta Highlights Role of Women as Economic Innovators
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta recently participated in a TIME magazine discussion with business leaders and thinkers to talk about creative capitalism, the notion that corporations can do well by thinking more broadly about how their products can benefit society. Rao Gupta reminded the panel not to discount the important role women play as economic innovators in growing economies, and the significance that the nongovernmental sector can play when partnered with businesses that are looking to do good.
"Some of the most exciting and innovative partnerships to alleviate poverty occur when nongovernmental organizations, and business come together to make a scalable difference in the lives of people," says Rao Gupta. "Importantly, years of evidence show that investing in women pays huge dividends toward reducing poverty and growing economies. When you invest in women, it benefits whole families and communities."
The meeting, a follow up to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' speech this year on "creative capitalism" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, highlighted the potential for companies to make a profit while doing good, including reducing poverty.
Panel participants included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Whole Foods founder and CEO John Mackey; Ogilvy & Mather chairman Shelly Lazarus; and University of Michigan professor C.K. Prahalad, author of "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid."
August 3, 2008
ICRW, San Francisco AIDS Foundation Launch New Network to Strengthen Coordination, Response to HIV Epidemic
Researchers continue to gain insights on how best to halt the spread of HIV. Yet program designers and implementers of services for HIV-affected communities often are unaware that this research exists. In some cases, researchers also have no common forum to share findings within their circles. How can we bridge these gaps in communication so crucial to effectively stemming the rise in HIV rates?
At the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, ICRW and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation join forces today and launch the Gender, Sexuality and HIV Research Network, one of the first networks to bring together researchers and programmers to strategize and collaborate on their work related to gender, sexuality and HIV.
August 3, 2008
AIDS Fight Needs Focus on Prevention and Women
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta urges global health community to design and fund more prevention programs addressing women’s vulnerability to HIV
To ratchet up success in the global fight against AIDS, ICRW challenges AIDS experts and advocates at this week’s Mexico City international AIDS conference to shift from an emergency-response to a long-term strategy that invests more in HIV prevention and focuses on the social and economic issues that drive the pandemic, especially among women and girls.
"We’ve made important investments in the fight against AIDS – we are beginning to see results in some places and the international community increasingly knows that women face unique risks to infection and barriers to services and care,” says Geeta Rao Gupta, president of ICRW, a Washington, D.C.-based international research organization. “Now we need to build on this success and cut AIDS at its base by addressing its core causes: social, economic and gender inequalities that drive HIV transmission.”
AUGUST 2, 2008
EFFECTIVE HIV VACCINE REQUIRES WOMEN IN CLINICAL TRIALS
New ICRW research points to gender inequalities keeping women from trials in Kenya
Developing a successful HIV vaccine will depend on whether researchers can successfully address the concerns and barriers that currently keep women
from participating in clinical trials in many developing countries, according to new research by ICRW.
JULY
July 31, 2008
Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Aid Reform
ICRW and Women Thrive Worldwide join the growing call to overhaul U.S. foreign assistance and say aid will go much farther by prioritizing investments in women, according to their new policy paper, “Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century.”
Released in advance of Senate and House hearings on reform aid (July 31), the white paper builds on the broader reform agenda recently issued by the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (M-FAN), a group of U.S. think-tanks, academics and international nongovernmental organizations.
The joint ICRW-Women Thrive Worldwide report emphasizes that investment in women is a crucial component of international development and should be a cornerstone of U.S. foreign assistance. The policy paper recommends capitalizing on women’s roles in reducing poverty and expanding economic growth, guaranteeing gender-equitable development assistance, and increasing funding and improving monitoring for programs that invest in women and address gender inequality.
July 30, 2008
President Signs U.S. Global AIDS Funding Bill – PEPFAR
Strengthens Prevention Efforts; Bolsters Focus on Women, Girls
WASHINGTON, July 30, 2008 - Today President George W. Bush signed into law the reauthorization of President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year, $48 billion initiative to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide.
The approved reauthorization includes language that calls on the administration to develop a specific strategy to address women and gender in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and sets a policy framework to address related issues of women’s inheritance rights, women’s lack of economic opportunities, and gender-based violence.
The reauthorization, however, falls short of an unequivocal victory for women and girls by including provisions that compromise their right to information and services related to sexual and reproductive health.
July 29, 2008
AIDS CONFERENCE SIGNALS OPPORTUNITY TO SHIFT FROM EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO LONG-TERM APPROACH TO FIGHTING AIDS
The upcoming international AIDS conference in Mexico City marks a crucial time for the international community to make a dramatic policy shift from an emergency response to longer-term prevention efforts in fighting HIV and AIDS, particularly among women and girls around the world.
July 23, 2008
Glamour Magazine Calls to End the Tragedy of Child Marriage
This past spring, extensive coverage about child brides at the Zion Ranch in Texas highlighted girls as young as 14 being forced into marriage. While the harmful practice remains relatively rare in the United States, Glamour magazine’s July issue reminds its readers that child marriage is shockingly common throughout the developing world.
In the article, ICRW’s Margaret Greene discusses the often dire economic circumstances that compel parents to marry off their daughters. “Parents think girls need to be married to have good lives,” she says. In poor, rural communities where child marriage persists, she adds, many girls and their families want to delay marriage but lack alternatives.
Glamour calls for both humanitarian and legislative solutions to “help end the tragedy of child marriage.”
July 16, 2008
Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Aid Reform
ICRW and Women Thrive Worldwide released today its think-piece on the issue of foreign aid reform in response to a broader reform agenda recently issued by the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (M-FAN), a group of U.S. think-tanks, academics and international nongovernmental organizations. The white paper, “Value Added: Women and U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century,” emphasizes that investment in women is a crucial component of international development and should be a cornerstone of U.S. foreign assistance.
More than four decades of development experience shows that where gender inequalities persist, countries pay the high cost of slower economic growth, weaker governance and overall lower standards of living. Without the integration of women, the ambitious goals of foreign aid reform will be met with only limited success.
To maximize the impact of U.S. foreign aid, the joint ICRW-Women Thrive Worldwide report recommends capitalizing on women’s roles in reducing poverty and expanding economic growth, guaranteeing gender-equitable development assistance, and increasing funding and improving monitoring for programs that invest in women and address gender inequality.
Several recent Congressional hearings have focused on the state of U.S. foreign assistance, observing that its approach is based on the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, which was framed to address obsolete security concerns pertaining to the Cold War. Rep. Berman, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House, has said that he wants to rewrite and modernize the above-mentioned Act. Potentially, this could mean the most serious overhaul in U.S. foreign aid policy since its conception.
July 2, 2008
Mixed Progress on MDGs as Mid-point Nears
As the September mid-point approaches for achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), experts have begun to weigh in on the mixed progress to date and the best path forward.
Winnie Byanyima, director of the UNDP gender team, Bureau for Development Policy, spoke last week at two D.C. events on the slow progress toward increasing women’s political participation, an indicator of the third goal to empower women and promote gender equality. Women have seen some gains in the proportion of seats they hold in national parliaments, she says, but almost no countries are close to parity, including developed countries like the United States.
Progress is uneven for the other Goal 3 indicators as well. Gains in girls’ education have been made, but the midway goal of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education has been missed, according to U.N. data. And new opportunities for women in the labor market are slow in coming.
This mixed progress on gender equality is especially alarming given that ensuring everyone – women and men, girls and boys – benefits from economic growth and poverty reduction is a cornerstone to meeting the other seven goals.
“Equality in decision making is a human right,” Byanyima says. “It benefits women, men, children, communities and nations. It is a shared goal, requiring a partnership between women and men.
“As it is a missed Millennium Development Goal, we should re-double our efforts to achieve it.”
The MDGs are the first global consensus on the development priorities needed to improve the lives and opportunities for the world’s poorest people. The framework identifies eight broad development goals to be met by 2015, with targets and measures to assess progress along the way.
ICRW contributed to an U.N. Taskforce that outlined the best ways to promote gender equality and empower women. These recommendations are outlined in the report, Toward Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women.
Byanyima spoke June 18 and June 19 at roundtables at InterAction and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, respectively. She is a member of the ICRW board of directors.
JUNE
June 27, 2008
Annie George Named Group Director, Health and Development for ICRW’s Asia Regional Office
Annie George will join ICRW’s Asia Regional Office as group director for health and development on July 14. As director, George will serve as the technical lead for ICRW’s research portfolio on HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, and maternal health and nutrition. She also will help design and implement a global program strategy to expand ICRW’s health and development
agenda worldwide.
June 26, 2008
ICRW names Jeannie Bunton Vice President, External Relations Group
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) today announced the appointment of Jeannie Bunton as vice president of its external relations group. Bunton brings to ICRW more than two decades of communications, media and public relations experience at the nonprofit and federal levels.
June 26, 2008
U.S. Senate Should Pass Life-Saving Bill – PEPFAR
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is up for renewal in Congress. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support and five years of accomplishments, the bill is stalled. Six senators are objecting to funding for life-saving international development efforts such as gender empowerment, poverty alleviation programs, education and agricultural assistance. The senators have requested that 55 percent of PEPFAR's funding be dedicated solely to treatment and drugs.
“Their rationale fails to recognize that AIDS is not just a public health problem,” says ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta in an Op-Ed to Shreveport Times. “The lessons of the past five years have shown the need for effective prevention strategies to address the underlying factors that drive the epidemic, including poverty and gender inequality.”
The PEPFAR reauthorization bill addresses many important factors that increasingly put women and girls at risk of HIV infection.
June 13, 2008
Poor Health, Poor Women: How Reproductive Health Affects Poverty
A multitude of research shows the negative effects of poverty on reproductive health outcomes, but does poor reproductive health prevent poor women from escaping poverty? In a new Woodrow Wilson Center publication, co-authors Margaret Greene of ICRW and Thomas Merrick of the World Bank, found that poor reproductive health outcomes do have negative effects on overall health, and under certain circumstances, on education and household well-being.
June 6, 2008
Tackling HIV-related Stigma in South Asia
The best, most innovative ideas to reduce HIV stigma will be implemented thanks to a competitive small grants program. Twenty-six civil society organizations won grants at the South Asia Regional Development Marketplace last week in Mumbai, India. Ideas ranged from raising awareness of stigma and discrimination through beauty pageants in Nepal to educating journalists about HIV and AIDS in Bangladesh.
"The DM was a fantastic opportunity for grassroots organizations to showcase their innovative ideas for reducing stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV,” says ICRW stigma expert Aparna Jain. “By monitoring these programs, we’ll know more about what works and how we can scale up promising ideas.”
ICRW experts helped select the winners and conducted workshops to equip grantees with the tools to measure and evaluate the impact of their programs.
June 2, 2008
Women Are Critical to Addressing World Food Crisis
ICRW Discusses Gender and Food Security with Voice of America
Rising food prices, expanding poverty, limited resources, climate change, increased energy needs and population growth — the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization convenes global leaders this week in Rome to discuss how best to respond to these mounting concerns. Vital to any crisis or longer-term strategy to improve food security in the developing world is to invest more in women, especially women farmers, says ICRW Director of Economic Development Rekha Mehra in a June 1 interview with Voice of America.
The three-day World Food Summit offers the international development community a chance to re-launch the fight against hunger and poverty and increase agricultural production in developing countries. To meet these objectives, however, world leaders must address gender inequality. Rural women produce as much as 80 percent of the food in developing countries, according to ICRW and other research, and they are primarily responsible for their families' nutrition.
"As the global community discusses how to stem the hunger crisis – targeted food giveaways, food subsidies, seeds and fertilizers to farmers – they must recognize that women should benefit from these programs,” Mehra says.
Women also should be a focus in longer-term agricultural investments like agricultural research, and extension and microcredit programs. Says Mehra: "Investing in women is a sure way to improve families’ food security and nutrition.”
Read a related letter in the Washington Post. 
MAY
May 27, 2008
Nike Foundation Launches GIRLSEFFECT.ORG
Web Site Illustrates Investing in Girls is Powerful Force for Change
Today the Nike Foundation launched GIRLSEFFECT.ORG - a Web site that illustrates the potential girls in the developing world have for creating a positive impact on their families, communities and nations.
The site tells the story of adolescent girls who are at a crossroad in their young lives. Given the chance to stay in school, be healthy and marry when they choose, these girls can become instruments of change who lift themselves and ultimately their families and communities from intergenerational cycles of poverty.
The site includes useful tools on how to get involved and compelling videos to share.
May 27, 2008
NoVo and Nike Invest $100 Million for Girls
Recognizing that investing in the health and well-being of adolescent girls is a powerful force for change, the NoVo and Nike Foundations announced an innovative and unprecedented joint effort to invest $100 million to help adolescent girls in developing countries.
“The Girl Effect” – the powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate in their societies – will seek to raise awareness of the state of the world’s adolescent girls and their potential by identifying and promoting the most promising opportunities for girls in the public and private sector. When girls in impoverished communities are supported, educated and empowered, everyone benefits and the cycle of poverty can be broken.
The NoVo Foundation will contribute $45 million over the next three years, and the Nike Foundation will invest $55 million through fiscal 2011.
ICRW works collaboratively with the Nike Foundation, providing its partners with strategic and measurement support on programmatic efforts to empower girls in poor countries. ICRW works with the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, supported by Nike Foundation and the United Nations Foundation, and is also a NoVo foundation grant recipient.
May 21, 2008
Investing in Female Farmers Lifts Nations from Poverty
ICRW responds to The Washington Post
In a letter to the editor, ICRW Economic and Development Director Rekha Mehra responds to the May 16 Washington Post article, "Women Rise in Rwanda's Economic Revival." Mehra explains that as global food prices rise and U.S. foreign assistance is debated in the upcoming presidential election, investing in women farmers should be a fundamental part of any economic development strategy.
Read the article “Women Rise in Rwanda's Economic Revival” 
May 7, 2008
ICRW Highlights Adolescent Programs at Youth Conference in Abuja
ICRW recently participated in Youth Deliver the Future, an international conference focused on current research and policy trends on the health and development needs of young people in low-resource countries. Today’s generation of adolescents is the largest in history, yet their needs often are overlooked by the global development community.
The conference was a forum to discuss and formulate policy, program and research priorities for youth development. Its goal is to direct more resources and investments to youth-related programs at the international, national and local levels.
ICRW’s experts presented research findings from a variety of adolescent programs, such as work with young men to address gender-based violence; stimulating youth demand and access to sexual and reproductive health services; delaying the age of marriage for girls; and sexual agency among young married women.
The event was held last week in Abuja, Nigeria, and hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health housed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Attendees included researchers, practitioners and youth from more than 40 international and national organizations.
APRIL
APRIL 25, 2008
Child Brides: Stolen Lives Receives Edward R. Murrow Award
Honored for Best TV Interpretation or Documentary on International Affairs
The PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW’s special broadcast on child marriage, Child Brides: Stolen Lives, has received the Edward R. Murrow Award for best TV interpretation or documentary on international affairs from the Overseas Press Club of America (OPC).
“Ambitious in a wholly different way than war or politics - and just as courageous - Child Brides: Stolen Lives does what the best international broadcast reporting is supposed to do: Introduce us to a world we don't know through vivid imagery, compelling storytelling and smart analysis,” according to the OPC, which honored the documentary at a April 24 ceremony in New York City.
In the hour-long documentary, NOW Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa takes viewers to Guatemala, India and Niger to explore stories of early marriage, including an illegal midnight wedding in India where children as young as 3 are married, and the courageous efforts of people campaigning to end child marriage in many of these communities.
Televised nationally in 2007, the broadcast raised the consciousness of millions of viewers and continues to educate online viewers around the globe. ICRW's longstanding research and advocacy on child marriage inspired and contributed to the documentary. Through ICRW-sponsored screenings and discussions in Washington and around the nation, the film is a valuable tool in our efforts to persuade Congress to increase U.S. support for programs to end this harmful practice.
Getty Images Honored
OPC also recognized Getty Images for its “dedication to quality international journalism,” and three of its photojournalists - Paula Bronstein, John Moore and Brent Stirton - garnered awards. ICRW is a beneficiary of in-kind support from Getty Images through the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC), an alliance of international companies dedicated to combating the AIDS pandemic. Recognizing the ability of photography to educate and affect change, Getty Images commits its resources and expertise to support the global movement against HIV and AIDS.
APRIL 24, 2008
Asia Regional Office Launches Gender Equity Movement in Schools
ICRW's Asia Regional Office recently launched its school-based initiative, Gender Equity Movement in Schools (GEMS), a comprehensive program to educate young men and women on issues of gender equity.
The April 11 event in New Delhi was the culmination of a two-day strategic planning meeting for practitioners, funders, international nongovernmental organizations and U.N. representatives from several countries in South Asia working on issues of gender equity and violence prevention with men and boys. The launch was hosted by ICRW's Asia Regional Office, UNDP - Asia Pacific Regional Center, and Save the Children Sweden Regional Office for South and Central Asia.
The event featured Kamala Bhasin, a leading women's rights activist, and local GEMS partners that will be implementing the program in three Indian states: (1) CORO for Literacy and Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Maharashtra; (2) Ritinjali in Rajasthan; and (3) Sangath in Goa.
The meeting highlighted the unique collaboration of three organizations – ICRW, Population Council and Instituto Promundo – in their efforts to design methodologies for working with young men and women on issues of gender equity. The event also marked the release of regional transcripts of group education training manuals, Yaari-Dosti and Sakhi-Saheli, published jointly by ICRW and Population Council. The manuals will be important tools in implementing GEMS.
APRIL 22, 2008
Financial Independence for Women May Be Key to Changing Social Norms and Help Fight Spread of HIV
Women
who control their own finances may feel more confident in negotiating a
partner’s change in behavior to avoid HIV infection, according to new
research on women and microcredit by ICRW’s Kim Ashburn, and authors
Deanna Kerrigan and Michael Sweat.
“This insight is important because it indicates that gaining financial independence is the crucial ‘empowerment’ factor, not just participating in microcredit programs,” Ashburn says.
The findings, based on research in the Dominican Republic, suggest that microcredit programs could better help women by expanding their focus on client recruitment and loan repayment rates to also include practical financial skills like accounting and business negotiations, which further strengthen women’s financial abilities.
The article, “Microcredit, Women’s Groups, Control of Own Money: HIV-Related Negotiation among Partnered Dominican Women,” will be published in the May edition of AIDS and Behavior.
APRIL 21, 2008
ICRW Announces New COO
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) is pleased to announce that Sarah Degnan Kambou, previously vice president for health and development, has been promoted to chief operating officer, effective April 4.
APRIL 11, 2008
Guide for Community Assessments on Women's Health Care
Building awareness of health issues among community members, parliamentarians in Africa
A
new how-to guide from ICRW, designed to help organizations facilitate
community assessments on women's health care, is now available for
download. The Guide for Community Assessments on Women's Health Care outlines practical and effective ways to assess women's access to
health care, particularly in communities hard-hit by the AIDS epidemic.
The guide includes step-by-step exercises in developing programs appropriate for your audience that will help community members and government leaders understand the importance of addressing women's health care needs to stop the spread of HIV.
MARCH
March 25, 2008
Time Magazine Quotes ICRW President
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta was quoted in the recent Time magazine article, “Women's Work,” which discusses the need for microfinance initiatives to provide management training for women in addition to capital.
“For any business to grow, in addition to a loan, you also need skills," explains Rao Gupta, "Microloans are not enough. Women are getting stuck."
That message is being heard. Management training for women is increasingly available through initiatives by development agencies including the World Bank and for-profit companies such as Goldman Sachs.
March 5, 2008
Senate PEPFAR Reauthorization Bill Moves Closer to Helping Women, Girls
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved legislation March 13 to reauthorize the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, to $50 billion for fiscal years 2009 to 2013, which will significantly bolster the reach and effectiveness of the U.S. global AIDS program.
ICRW commends the Senate for including provisions to strengthen PEPFAR's priority to women and girls and laying out stronger measures to hold PEPFAR accountable for the gender focus. ICRW also applauds the Senate committee's decision to eliminate the requirement that one-third of funds be directed toward programs promoting “abstinence and be faithful” behavior, which will allow countries more flexibility to tailor prevention efforts to local needs.
Nevertheless, ICRW is disappointed that the Senate committee remained silent on the important issue of integrating HIV/AIDS information and services into family planning programs and retained the requirement that PEPFAR recipients pledge their opposition to prostitution.
Read ICRW's full position statement .
March 5, 2008
ICRW Awards Gala Honors Global Leaders for Advancing the Well-Being and Economic Progress of Women and Girls
Salud y Género, Standard Chartered Bank Honored
for Their Work to Improve Women’s Lives
On the eve of International Women’s Day, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) has issued a challenge for U.S. and world leaders to take a stand, listen to the needs of women and girls, and use their influence to implement the “right solutions” to advance the progress and opportunities for women and girls in impoverished nations around the world.
FEBRUARY
Feb. 29, 2008
PEPFAR Reauthorization Must Protect Women From HIV Risks by Integrating HIV/AIDS Services Into Reproductive Health Programs
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta commends House Committee for adopting HIV prevention strategy for women and girls, but adds reproductive health services are key to strategy
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) commends the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the recent bipartisan agreement to develop a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy for women and girls as part of the U.S. global AIDS plan reauthorization legislation.
Foreign Policy Magazine Runs ICRW President's Letter to the Editor
No cheap fix for realizing gender equality
ICRW President Geeta Rao Gupta 's letter to the editor was published in the most recent issue of Foreign Policy, the premier, award-winning magazine on global politics and economics. She responded to an essay that includes the assertion that reaching the goal of gender equality “will not cost a dime.”
“Achieving gender equality will require a commitment to implement effective programs and policies,” her letter states. “That costs money.”
Feb. 28, 2008
Worldview of Chicago's Public Radio
Worldview of Chicago's Public Radio recently interviewed students who participated in ICRW's Week of Action to help stop child marriage in Mali.
Feb. 8, 2008
Get Involved!
Week of Action on Child Marriage:
Feb. 25-29
ICRW is launching a Child Marriage Week of Action Feb. 25-29. Working with partners like you, we hope to raise awareness about the child marriage, especially among members of Congress, and to persuade them to support pending legislation that could help millions of girls go to school and prevent them from marrying too young. Please join us.
The good news: 45 legislators are supporting the child marriage bills. And we need only two more members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to co-sponsor for the committee to consider taking up the legislation. We need your help.
Legislators that we speak with say they would be willing to co-sponsor the legislation if they heard from constituents. Phone calls, letters and faxes from you are powerful tools for moving legislation. Please contact Congress during the week of Feb. 25-29 and make a difference in a girl's life today.
Talking points and background information that you can use in a phone call or a letter can be found on our Web site.
Other methods to reach policy-makers include writing a letter to the editor or submitting an op-ed to your local newspaper. Our Web site has tips for that, too.
Please contact Dan Martin if you have any questions or need assistance. And let us know if your organization has grassroots networks and would like to get involved in the Week of Action.
Feb. 5, 2008
Girls Count in Fight to End Poverty
Gaisu Yari was just a child when a tribal warlord, eager to claim Gaisu as his bride, killed her father. Threatened with kidnapping and forced marriage, with no education, economic opportunity or freedom, Gaisu says she faced a future of domestic slavery and violence. With the help of friends and relatives, she fled to the United States.
At the launch last week of Girl's Count: A Global Investment and Action Agenda, Gaisu described her childhood and how her experience is similar to many other adolescent girls in developing countries who without an education, employment opportunities and sometimes the assurance of basic human rights, cannot break out of the poverty cycle, much less contribute to their countries' economic growth. The report shows how detrimental girls' marginalization is to fighting poverty and achieving broader international development goals.
Researchers, policy-makers and development officials who attended the launch discussed how to get the message out that girls count in international development. For example, girls who receive one year of education more than the current average boost their eventual wages by between 10 percent and 20 percent, according to the report. They also discussed how to shift the international development agenda so that it includes targets for adolescent girls.
ICRW Director of Population and Social Transitions Margaret Greene, co-author of the report, participated in the panel, which included representatives from the Center for Global Development, Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, Population Council, UNFPA, UNIFEM and the U.N. Foundation. Several other authors, as well as other ICRW researchers, contributed to the report.
JANUARY
JAN. 28, 2008
Voice of America Discusses High Costs of Child Marriage
ICRW's Margaret Greene and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) recently spoke with Voice of America's foreign policy series, On the Line, about the high costs of child marriage to international development and the opportunity Congress currently faces to help curb child marriage worldwide. Policy analyst Farhana Ali from Rand also joined the discussion.
Legislation before both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives would mandate that the U.S. State Department report on child marriage in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights as well as empower the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to integrate child marriage prevention efforts, such as education for girls, into existing programs and implement pilot programs to reduce the prevalence of child marriage. Without additional congressional support, the bills will not move forward.
Currently some 51 million girls in the developing world are married. In several countries, more than half of girls are married before they reach their 18th birthday. The United States spends millions of dollars every year on international development assistance, money that is less effective due to the negative consequences of child marriage.
JAN. 22, 2008
NEW REPORT
Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda
ICRW Director of Population and Social Transitions Margaret Greene contributed to a new report, Girls Count, which illustrates the benefits and means to empower adolescent girls in developing countries to reduce poverty, and offers targeted recommendations for national and local governments, donor agencies, civil society, and the private sector.
In addition to Greene, several other ICRW researchers, working on adolescent issues, contributed to this report.
The problem of global poverty can only be addressed through a comprehensive approach to promote the empowerment of adolescent girls. Investing in their health and well-being will unleash their power to transform their individual circumstances. Unfortunately, issues related to adolescent girls remain invisible to many policy-makers. Without substantial investments in girls' well-being, the international community cannot achieve its objective to reduce global poverty.
The Center for Global Development published the report.
The authors of the report will present their findings and policy recommendations Jan. 30, 2008.
Location:
Hilton Washington Embassy Row
Ambassador Room
2015 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Light breakfast provided.
JAN. 22, 2008
ICRW Meets with Girl Scouts to Discuss Child Marriage
ICRW's Saranga Jain recently met with a group of Girl Scouts in Springfield, Mass., to discuss their thoughts on child marriage after viewing the NOW on PBS documentary, Child Brides: Stolen Lives. The girls, ranging in ages from 14 to 18, shared concerns about the health and social consequences of marrying too young, and made connections between the lives of adolescent girls in developing countries and their own.
“I learned a lot from these girls,” says Jain, the lead researcher of the report, New Insights on Preventing Child Marriage. “So many of the aspirations and hopes for the future that these girls expressed are similar to those of girls in South Asia.” For example, Nepalese girls in an ICRW study reported aspirations of finishing secondary school, going to college, getting a job, falling in love and getting married, activities which they hoped would occur in their 20's. The reality for many girls in Nepal, however, is marriage and childbearing before they have reached adulthood. This often means an end to all other future hopes, including education and earning an income.
The Jan. 21 film showing with the Girl Scouts coincided with a screening in Long Island, N.Y. Afterward, experts at each location led a discussion about child marriage, followed by a live video-teleconference between the two sites.
JAN. 10, 2008
A CALL TO ACTION:
Gender, Sexuality, Violence Concerns Help Shape HIV Policy Debates in India
ICRW's Regional Asia Office and Oxfam Great Britain, with support from the European Commission, recently joined forces in India to help inform national policy aimed at curbing gender- and sexuality-based stigma, discrimination and violence against people at risk of and affected by HIV.
ICRW and Oxfam organized a national “Call to Action” consultation, with various stakeholders, to discuss changes needed in national HIV policy.
Recommendations – ranging from convening a gender and sexuality advisory group to addressing damaging gender norms in programs and messages – have been forwarded to national policy-makers and are outlined in the conference report, Gender, Sexuality and Violence in the Context of HIV and AIDS: A Call to Action.