About one billion people are currently living without one of the most basic human rights, the right to access clean and safe drinking water. This inequity is not just tragic, but is also undermining progress towards achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 – health, education, economic growth, gender equality; they are all interconnected to water.
 
According to Charity Water, unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and lead to more deaths annually than all forms of violence around the world. Children are especially vulnerable to diseases caused by unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions. The United Nations predicts that 10% of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.
 

As the flood waters begin to recede across Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says the government is now “seriously concerned” about the potential spread of epidemic diseases.

The flooding has left more than 1,600 people dead and approximately six million homeless. According to the BBC, about 17 million of Pakistan’s 166 million people have been affected by the disaster. In addition, the United Nations warns that without enough doctors or proper facilities, over 100,000 pregnant women are now at risk of infection and disease.

“As human misery continues to mount, we are seriously concerned with the spread of epidemic diseases,” Yousuf Raza Gilani said, adding, “There is a likelihood of water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and dysentery, especially in children who are already weak and vulnerable.”

The SDM Toolkit provides policy makers, health care providers, and program managers across the globe with state-of-the-art information on this highly-effective fertility awareness-based method (FAM) of family planning that has been proven to expand choice for women and couples.

The SDM is a modern fertility awareness-based method of family planning that is easy to teach, easy to learn and easy to use. Since 2002, Georgetown University’s Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) has worked with partners to integrate the SDM into programs in over 30 countries worldwide. Now the SDM Toolkit ensures that professionals have quick and easy access to comprehensive information on programming and policy considerations relevant to the SDM. With the resources available on the SDM Toolkit, professionals are well-equipped with the guidance and tools needed to support SDM integration, advocacy, training and service-delivery.

K4Health recently published a new toolkit on hormonal implants developed by the Long-Acting and Permanent Methods Community of Practice under leadership of EngenderHealth, Family Health International, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Hormonal implants are gaining popularity among a broad range of women wanting to time, space, or limit future pregnancies. As the number of such products – including Implanon®, Jadelle®, and Sino-implant (II)® -- become available, so will the demand for thorough and detailed resources about them.

(This post was originally published on the K4Health Blog)

Three senior Obama administration officials on Wednesday spoke at a policy forum held at the Kaiser Family Foundation on the Administration’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) – a six-year $63 billion proposed effort that will build on existing “disease-specific” initiatives and increase attention to other areas such as family planning, reproductive health, and maternal and child health.