HEALTHYGIRLSANDWOMEN=HEALTHYAFRICA
A Luncheon Dedicated to Improving the Health of Girls and Women in Africa
So much progress has been made, yet so much work remains to be done!
On April 14, 2010, the African Medical and Research Foundation USA (AMREF USA) hosted a gala luncheon at The Plaza Hotel in New York City to celebrate and garner support for AMREF’s widespread efforts to improve the health of women and girls across Africa. A distinguished group of honorees and more than 250 friends of AMREF came together not only to draw attention to the plight of girls and women in Africa, but also - as Her Excellency Ida Odinga noted - to highlight "that healthy, educated women are the key to meeting the social and economic development of ... Africa."
Joining AMREF USA were public health and philanthropic leaders from across the globe, including Her Excellency Ida Odinga, Wife of Kenya’s Prime Minister; Jennifer Buffett, co-founder of the NoVo Foundation; Ambassador Swanee Hunt, President of Hunt Alternatives; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland; Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group; Dr. Miriam K. Were, former International Chair, AMREF; Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and authors of Half the Sky; Dr. Teguest Guerma, Director-Elect, AMREF; and Mena Suvari, actress and AMREF USA’s Goodwill Ambassador. Chairing the event and serving as moderator for the panel discussion was Carol Jenkins, award-winning journalist, founder of The Women’s Media Center, and AMREF USA board member.
Throughout the awards presentations and roundtable discussion, award recipients and panelists emphasized the key role of women and girls in development initiatives.
Empowering Women and Girls is the “Fundamental Human Rights Issue of Our Time”
Nicholas D. Kristof summed up the overriding theme of the event by stating that empowering women and girls across the globe truly is the “fundamental human rights issue of our time.” Building on this theme, the panelists discussed the fact that, as women and girls broaden their roles and contribute to all facets of family life, they improve the well-being of not only their immediate family, but also their communities at large. Empowering women leads to the strengthening of entire economies and a brighter future for Africa.
In response to questions posed by Carol Jenkins, panelists WuDunn, Hunt, and Robinson elaborated on various ways in which educated, healthy women can have a positive impact not only on the future of Africa but on the world in general – from helping curb terrorism through increased social and economic stability to bringing positive environmental change through the use of innovative, eco-friendly products for cooking or generating energy.
Positive Results and political commitment Energize and Increase the Support Base for International Development Efforts
Addressing the current state of media reporting of international humanitarian efforts, the panelists discussed the media’s historic fascination with negative stories and how the media now appear to be trending toward a more positive angle. "I think the mistake the humanitarian community has made is to focus on what has gone wrong, not what has gone right," Kristof said. According to the panelists, particularly Kristof and WuDunn, the tide appears to be changing as today’s younger generation is drawn more closely to positive stories whose messages can be harnessed to make people want to be part of something positive. This, in turn, leads people to take positive action to effect change.
Of particular interest to the panel was a recent study published in The Lancet. While maternal death rates have been alarmingly high in developing nations for many years, the UK journal reported on stunning recent successes in lowering maternal death rates. Welcoming the boost that this good news will provide to maternal health initiatives, the panel also acknowledged that the overall global declining mortality numbers did not reflect much improvement in Africa. What the numbers do show, however, is that with strong commitment and sufficient resources, progress is possible. Will Africa be the next success story?
Earlier this year, Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s announcement to put maternal and child health at the top of the agenda for the G8 meeting in Canada in June demonstrated that there is growing commitment from governments to fight maternal mortality. The nations of the world are now challenged by Harper’s leadership to galvanize the political will to commit the resources and establish accountability to meet the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, improving maternal health and reducing child mortality, respectively.
How Do We Move Forward?
As award recipient Jennifer Buffett told the audience, the world has essentially answered the question of “why” help women and girls and is now in the evolving process of answering the question of “how” to help them in the most effective way possible. The panel uniformly responded that one of the first steps is to involve men in the process. For women and girls to achieve better health services, economic opportunities, and a voice in the decision-making process, men need to understand and recognize that empowering women benefits society as a whole.
In concluding, Dr. Were commented on her decades of experience in African public health and stated that she was pleased to see that the African youths of today increasingly see themselves not only as citizens of their birth countries, but also as citizens of the world. This positive change in outlook, according to Dr. Were, is in part due to the United States’ continued support for humanitarian programs on the continent that benefit all Africans. Dr. Were emphatically thanked the audience members for the U.S.’s historic assistance and implored the audience to “not give up on Africa” at this key juncture as so much progress has been made, yet so much work remains to be done.
