The year 2007 has been critical for advancing the health and rights of women.

Women Deliver marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of the global Safe Motherhood Initiative. We now know how to save the lives of most of the mothers and infants who die needlessly worldwide in pregnancy and childbirth.

However, the overall number of women (about 500,000 per year) and newborns who die in this way (about four million) has not dropped significantly. This is in large part due to lack of political will.

Maternal and newborn health still receives inadequate attention and funding.

At Women Deliver, research and experience shared among the 2,000 participants demonstrated the critical connection between women’s health and rights and sound economies, healthy families, and strong communities.

Women Deliver was the place where critical questions were asked and answered:

• How can we best build on past successes, including 20 years of research and experience?
• What needs to be done differently?
• Who can make it happen?
• How do we get it done?

The conference focused on five critical areas of investment in women:

• Improving women’s and newborn health
• Advancing human rights
• Expanding financial resources
• Building political will
• Promoting women in the world

Maternal mortality is at the heart of the Millennium Development Goals.

In 2000, the 192 countries of the United Nations adopted eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for the year 2015.

Goal Five: improve maternal health, by reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths and providing universal access to reproductive health by 2015. This is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other seven will too: improving child survival, reducing poverty, stopping HIV/AIDS, providing education, promoting gender equality, ensuring adequate food supplies, and promoting a healthy environment.