March 8 is International Women’s Day, a time when the international community commemorates the achievements of women and girls around the world and draws attention to what more needs to be done to empower women and promote gender equality. This year’s International Women’s Day focuses on a #PledgeForParity. 

In global health terms, this means equal access to health services and information that keeps women and girls healthy throughout their life cycle. Despite the progress made in the last few decades, far too many women continue to die during pregnancy or childbirth and witness the death of their children to preventable diseases. Access to family planning services, which can reduce maternal deaths by 30 percent and child deaths by 25 percent globally, remain out of reach for more than 225 million women in developing countries. As the primary caretakers of children, the elderly, and the sick, women are also disproportionately affected by infectious diseases. Tuberculosis, for instance, is one of the top five killers of adult women aged 20–59 years. Women are also more at risk of HIV and AIDS. Globally, 50 young women are newly infected with HIV every hour.

Health programs that address gender barriers have been demonstrated to improve overall development outcomes. When women are educated, can space their pregnancies, and can earn and control their hard-earned income, infant mortality declines, child health and household nutrition improve, agricultural productivity rises, population growth slows, economies expand, and cycles of poverty are broken. When countries adopt policies that empower women and girls, they also make a forward looking investment. 

Learn more

• Read about the Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) women partnership and read the blog post about its impact in 10 sub-Saharan African countries.
  
  
• Discover a simple health innovation that enables low-income adolescent girls in rural Kenya to not skip school thanks to Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector.
  
  
• Explore how the Responsible, Engaged and Loving (REAL) fathers project builds positive parenting practices in post-conflict Northern Uganda and reduces violence against women.
  
  
• Find out how the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting efforts to make health services more accessible to women with disabilities in the Ukraine.
  
  
• Learn how USAID is promoting gender equality through health, through mechanisms like the Agency’s gender policy and strategies to address gender-based violence and trafficking in persons.
  
  
• View the photo gallery of USAID’s efforts to save the lives of 600,000 women by 2020.
  
  
• Read success stories on USAID’s lifesaving maternal health work in India, Malawi, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Kenya.
  
  
• Women and girls are disproportionately affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). For instance, women and girls suffer a greater burden from the painful late stages of trachoma, which can lead to blindness. This year USAID celebrates 10 years of work to stop NTDs. #NoMoreNTDs Stay tuned for updates.
  
  
• Make a #PledgeForParity and put gender on the agenda today, tomorrow, and beyond.
  
  
• Read a blog on the significance of the dapivirine vaginal ring for HIV prevention, a tool that can be used by women to avert HIV infection

Photo credit: Afri-Can Trust