The following originally appeared on Women Deliver’s blog. It is posted here with permission.
Every year, in conjunction with International Women’s Day, Women Deliver celebrates the progress made on behalf of girls and women worldwide. Our Women Deliver 100 list in 2011, which featured 100 of the most inspiring people who have delivered for girls and women, was covered by over 100 traditional and new media sources. This year, to continue the momentum, we are spotlighting the top 50 inspiring ideas and solutions that deliver for girls and women. We would love to hear what you think are the most innovative, impactful, and promising advancements in overcoming gender inequality.
These advancements could have been made by an individual, governments, the private sector, or civil society, but they must have helped to improve the condition of girls and women around the world, in one or more of the following 5 categories:
- Technologies and Innovations
- Educational Initiatives
- Health Modernization
- Advocacy and Awareness Campaigns
- Leadership and Empowerment Programs
Examples of inequities that the solutions may have addressed include, but are not limited to: Violence Against Women; Sex Trafficking; Child Marriage; Political Processes; Maternal Health; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights; HIV/AIDS, Lesbian; Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights; Economic Inequity; or Female Genital Mutilation.
NOMINATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 10, 2012.
Once all nominations have been received, a selection committee of experts and advocates from leading global NGOs and foundations will choose 25 per category. Voting opens on February 20th, and the Top 50 (10 winners per category) will be announced on International Women’s Day. The winners from each category will be featured prominently on Women Deliver’s website, through the selection committee’s social media portals, and at the Women Deliver 2013 conference in Kuala Lumpur.
Criteria:
- Advancements may include projects, programs, technologies, initiatives, or campaigns launched anywhere in the world
- Solution or Idea must have been implemented in the last five years
- Can be grassroots or global in scale (example: community initiative or global technology)
- If the solution has been ongoing for more than a year, please provide quantitative and qualitative data that demonstrates results
- If the idea is in the early stages of implementation, please include an explanation of why it will be effective
- Please provide website (if applicable) and references
Selection Committee:
-Chair: Jill Sheffield, Founder and President of Women Deliver
-Jimmie Briggs, Founder and Executive Director of Man Up
-Cory Heyman, Chief Program Officer at Room to Read
-Josh Nesbit, CEO of Medic Mobile
-Amie Newman, Communications Officer and Editor of the Impatient Optimist at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
-Lyric Thompson, Special Assistant to the President at the International Center for Research on Women
-Michael Tirrell, Communications Manager for Media and Public Affairs at Marie Stopes International
Click here to make a nomination. Thank you in advance for you submissions!
Field Experience in Maternal Health: Elena Chopyak Shares her Experience with Medic Mobile in Mali
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 by ablancOver the first three weeks of January, several Harvard School of Public Health graduate students took part in the Field Experience in Maternal Health winter session, organized by the Women and Health Initiative and the Maternal Health Task Force. In this blog post, Elena Chopyak writes about her field experience with Medic Mobile in Mali.
Written by: Elena Chopyak
It is widely known that the maternal mortality rate in Mali is grossly underestimated. However, current data collection methods fail to capture true mortality rates, especially in rural areas of the country. An mhealth project between the Malian Ministry of Health, UNFPA, L’Agence Nationale de Télésanté et d’Informatique Médicale (ANTIM), and Medic Mobile aims to collect more accurate data to better inform future initiatives targeting maternal deaths.
Thanks to support from ANTIM, I visited a number of pilot sites in Koulikoro and Segou with Ibrahim Kante, an ANTIM technician, and Hammadou Dia, a medical ANTIM intern. Our goal was to hear administrative and community health workers’ (CHW) experiences with the pilot to date so that their input can be incorporated into the project as it is scaled-up nationally.
In a roundtable discussion in the town of Bla, Dia and I posed questions about some of the preliminary advantages and challenges health administrators have encountered in their use of the mobile phones.
Dia and I spoke to representatives from various districts and communities about the former/current demographic collection system, the shortcomings, and general aspirations for the mobile project. We also asked the CHWs involved in the pilot to share their experiences with the phones, including challenges they have had, if any, and their reflections on the training they received.
Despite some technical hiccups, unexpected advantages of the project are rapidly becoming apparent. Thanks to unlimited calling, CHWs and medical and administrative staff report that they communicate more frequently about villagers’ medical needs and concerns. A review of the data collected at the end of the month, and again at the end of each month of the three-month pilot phase will provide a clearer picture of the health of the project.
Even though the pilot phase is in its early stages, CHWs and administrators hope that the project will continue and will expand to include a wide range of health data collection.
When I wasn’t in the ANTIM office or visiting the pilot sites, I had the opportunity to enjoy some of the great live music Bamako has to offer. Serendipitously, I bumped into Habib Koité, one of my favorite Malian musicians, at the Centre Culturel francais de Bamako!
To learn more about the Field Experience in Maternal Health winter session course, visit the course page here or check out a recent blog post about the course here.
Click here to learn about Medic Mobile’s work, supported by the MHTF, to develop three mobile tools for maternal health.
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Tags: Elena Chopyak, field experience, Field Experience in Maternal Health, Habib Koité, Hammadou Dia, Harvard School of Public Health, HSPH Winter Session, Ibrahim Kante, Koulikoro, L’Agence Nationale de Télésanté et d’Informatique Médicale, Mali, Malian Ministry of Health, Medic Mobile, Segou, UNFPA, Women and Health Initiative
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