Kakenya Ntaiya’s story shows how education can change all the cards in the hand a young girl is dealt at birth. The oldest of eight children of a Maasai tribal family, she was engaged to be married when she was five years old.

Awatif is frightened of giving birth after the sun goes down. The Serif camp has no night midwife available because of security concerns.

Curbing violence against women is among the many cost-effective investments governments can make that will improve women’s health and boost their creativity.

Fatima’s story illustrates the dire consequences a mother’s death has for her family and her community. She and her husband Ahmed already had nine children and were barely surviving on his salary as a security guard when she became pregnant again.

In Bolivia, indigenous tradition often means women give birth at home, fully clothed, squatting on the floor, with only family members to help. When Albina Chambe, 15, went into labour in a poor suburb of La Paz, her fiancé Grover, only 18 himself, wanted to take his wife to a hospital.