>>Available in PDF 

Summary: By Adrienne Germain (Published in Restoring American Leadership: 13 Cooperative Steps to Advance Global Progress, a joint publication of the Open Society Institute and the Security and Peace Institute, April 2005). Outlines key opportunities for the Bush administration to play a leadership role in accelerating global cooperation on women's health and human rights, especially in slowing the advance of HIV/AIDS
(7 pages).

Click here to download Restoring American Leadership from the Open Society Institute's website.

The New York Times, March 5, 2005

Editorial

At a moment when the United States should be leading the world on advancing women's equality, the Bush administration chose instead to alienate government ministers and 6,000 other delegates at an important United Nations conference on that issue with a burst of anti-abortion zealotry this week.

>>Available in French and Spanish

Summary: By Adrienne Germain (Our Planet Magazine, October 2004). Explains why empowering women is the key to solving a range of global health, development, and environmental challenges, reviews commitments made on improving women's health and advancing women's rights at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, Cairo, 1994) and summarizes achievements made in the last decade.

Science, Vol 305, Issue 5680, 17, 2 July 2004

By Adrienne Germain

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision in May 2004 not to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, Plan B, is but one troubling example of the increasing impact of politics and ideology on science and health policy. The agency's ruling, contrary to recommendations from an external advisory panel and its own scientific staff, is indicative of the growing gap between common sense and U.S. policies affecting the well-being of women and girls worldwide.

The New York Times, October 15, 2003

Editorial Desk

In August, the United States Agency for International Development abruptly canceled bids for a program to market condoms to gay men and others in Brazil. When the decision was criticized publicly, the agency reinstated most of the program. This was the right choice. Preventing the spread of AIDS means working with the groups most at risk.

The New York Times, July 12, 2003 - Late Edition - Final

Editorial Desk

President Bush's successful trip to Africa this week is emblematic of alarger journey. As a presidential candidate, Mr. Bush was dismissive ofAfrica's importance to American interests. Now he has become only thethird American president, and the first Republican, to make an extendedvisit to sub-Saharan Africa. Over five days in five countries, headdressed a variety of important themes: the cruel legacy of slavery,the current crises in Liberia and Zimbabwe, and most important, thechallenge of AIDS and America's commitment to helping Africa fight itwith treatment and prevention programs that can save millions of lives.

International Herald Tribune, July 9, 2003

By Kati Marton and Adrienne Germain

Across the African subcontinent, almost 60 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS are girls and women. In South Africa, women are dying at such a rate that the entire gender balance is being altered—from near parity to a ratio of 120 males to every 100 females. The implications of the feminization of AIDS are huge—for caregiving, the health and wholeness of families, social stability, policies and programs.

>>Available in PDF

Summary: By Rounaq Jahan (Reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 11, No. 21, May 2003). Examines how advocates for gender equity succeeded in influencing health sector reform in Bangladesh in the mid-1990s, but failed to exert the same influence over the implementation of those reforms. The article discusses the major challenges advocates faced, the strategies they developed in response, and as a result, the gains they were able to achieve. These included ensuring that social and gender equity as well as reproductive health were central concerns of the health system, developing indicators to monitor program performance, improving community and stakeholder participation, and recognizing the importance of gender in all health interventions. Despite these successes, substantial ground was lost in the implementation process, indicating the need for civil society to play a more prominent role at each stage of the reform process (9 pages).