A Practical Manifesto for Women and Children’s Health

Adivasi_woman_and_child,_Chhattisgarh,_Nov_2005-ccAt an intensive two-day June meeting in Washington, DC, sponsored by UNFPA, center director Jennifer Leaning joined colleagues from around the world to write the penultimate draft of Every Woman, Every Child, a practical manifesto to embed in the discussion of the Sustainable Development Goals that will take place at the meeting of the UN General Assembly  this September in New York City.  The aim during this final drafting workshop was to strengthen language and financing mechanisms in order to hold the international community accountable for delivering humanitarian and development aid to women and children who are “hardest to reach”—those trapped in war and disaster, those hidden in trafficked settings, those driven to desperate refugee flight.  These populations are at the center of concern for the Harvard FXB Center. Our faculty and fellows  (Jacqueline Bhabha, Liz Gibbons, and Kathleen Hamill) have been closely involved with the 2015 drafting process.