Over 5,000 experts, world leaders to gather over women’s health in Malaysia
More than 5,000 experts and advocates of women’s health and reproductive rights issues, have confirmed their participation in the third in a series of global conferences on women scheduled for May 28, 2013 to May 30, 2013 in Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia.
Dubbed Women Deliver 2013, the conference will be addressed by speakers of great repute such as Melinda Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General & Executive Director of United Nations Women and Helen Clark, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Others are Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and Dr. Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health, Karolinska Institute; Co-founder & Chairman, Gapminder Foundation.
Confirming speakers and participants for this year’s conference through a statement issued yesterday, February 21, 2013, organisers Global Health Strategies said, the conference, which aims to ensure that investments in girls and women remain a global priority in the lead-up to the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline and beyond will involve people from over 160 countries.
Women Deliver 2013 is also expected to focus on the unmet need for family planning, as well as the landmark July 2012 London Summit on Family Planning, where global leaders committed to provide contraceptive access to 120 million women in the world’s poorest countries by the year 2020 and the progress made since the Summit.
The conference will further focus on a range of other critical issues related to women’s health and empowerment, with the first day of the conference dedicated mainly to discussions on the conference’s keynote theme, “Investing in women”, while the third will focus on the post-2015 development framework.
Basically, Women Deliver 2013 hopes to build on past Women Deliver conferences and generate new political, financial and grassroots support for girls’ and women’s health and empowerment.
Commenting on the upcoming conference, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) Executive Director said; “Women Deliver 2013 offers an unprecedented opportunity to build on the tremendous momentum generated last year around reproductive health, especially during the London Summit on Family Planning.”
He added that “Access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, age appropriate sexuality education, information and services and skilled and motivated care givers help ensure that all women and girls have the power to shape their futures.”
For her part, Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver Founder and President stated: “With the MDG target date just around the corner, the time is now for us to ensure that girls and women are central pillars in the new development agenda.”
“We have made incredible strides toward improving women’s health and rights in recent years, and we cannot stop now. Women Deliver 2013 will offer a powerful forum for ensuring that we continue to deliver for girls and women for years to come,” she added.
Women Deliver 2013 will also attract more than 70 journalists from around the world who have already registered to attend the meeting.
According to the organisers, the media will have access to all conference sessions, and benefit from a variety of on-site media amenities, including a press workroom and daily press conferences, while a select group of high-level editors and senior reporters will also be invited to attend a half-day Media Forum on Monday, May 27.
The forum will discuss the challenges of covering women’s health and empowerment issues and ways to incorporate these topics into broader sustainable development coverage.
Further, a ‘virtual’ media room will be made available to media men and women who are unable to attend the conference in person. Virtual registrants will also have access to all conference materials, as well as webcasts of high-level sessions and press conferences at Women Deliver 2013.
By Edmund Smith-Asante