"The most significant event for the future of women and children in over 20 years.”
-Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet, June 2010 in interview with BBC
In 2007, when the first Women Deliver conference was held in London, 1,700 maternal health advocates and experts from 115 countries joined together to focus the world’s attention on the tragic number of preventable deaths during pregnancy and childbirth. In 2010, Women Deliver organized a second global conference in Washington DC with more than 3,400 participants from 146 countries. In both conferences, nearly 40% of the attendees were men.
2010 Conference Highlights - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the conference and announced the UN’s Global Strategy for Women and Children’s Health, and the Every Woman Every Child initiative.
- Melinda Gates, co-founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced the Foundation’s $1.5 billion pledge to maternal and child health over the next five years. Media Coverage
- More than 235 reporters covered Women Deliver 2010, with more than 350 stories appearing worldwide. 170 attended the conference on-site, and another 65 followed the conference remotely via webcasting, live blogging, and Twitter.
- 5 UN agency heads, over 30 Ministers, the World Bank Managing Director and US Secretary of Health and Human Services participated in the conference.
- Health and Finance Ministers from 30 countries met with Ministers of Development Cooperation and UN agency heads. Parliamentarians from 50 countries met with Congressional delegations to discuss how to advance reproductive and maternal health.
- The conference included 800 presentations/conversations in six plenary sessions, eight Chairman’s sessions, and 120 concurrent sessions.
- A total of 21 sessions were webcast, including plenaries and press conferences. Webcast unique viewers exceeded conference attendees with 15,000 unique viewers and 48,000 visits.
- A Youth Pre-Conference brought together 100 young leaders and focused on how to use social marketing tools in advocating for maternal health. Youth participated on panels in the concurrent sessions and plenaries. 13% of conference participants were under the age of 30 years
- 30 organizations supported the conference: UN agencies, World Bank, countries, NGOs, and corporations.
- Countdown to 2015 presented its 2010 report – its first data release since 2008 – at Women Deliver.
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