Brochure with images and timeline from a reception and exhibition of photographs commemorating the 40th anniversary of U.S. funding for international family planning programs.

Pregnancy and childbirth are deadly to more than half a million women worldwide every year – a fact that is unacceptable, but not unavoidable. Despite twenty years of campaigning to improve their sexual and reproductive health, the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth continues to show the largest gap between the rich and poor of all development statistics. That so little progress has been made in helping the world's poorest women survive pregnancy and childbirth should serve as a wake-up call to all of us.

A Measure of Survival: Calculating Women's Sexual and Reproductive Risk classifies 130 developing and developed countries (comprising 96 percent of the world population) into five categories from highest to lowest sexual and reproductive risk for women based on indicators of access to reproductive health service and outcomes.

Assessment of the progress nations have made towards achieving the goals set by the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. The ICPD examined the social context of population growth and size by focusing on the reproductive health and rights of women and men.

Population Action International (PAI) is an independent policy advocacy group working to strengthen political and financial support worldwide for population programs grounded in individual rights. Founded in 1965, PAI is a private, non-profit group and accepts no government funds.

Filmed in Kenya and Uganda, this 9-minute documentary provides a snapshot of the Bush administrationís abstinence-only approach to HIV prevention as part of its global HIV/AIDS assistance. Abstaining from Reality examines how these ideologically-driven programs are actually endangering the lives of the people theyíre supposed to be protecting. This policy is disconnected from the reality of the lives of women and young people, who are disproportionately affected by the epidemic. The film urges a balanced, comprehensive approach to preventing HIV infections by providing full and accurate information and a range of services that empower individuals to make informed decisions.

The Global Gag Rule was reinstated by President George W. Bush on his first day in office in January 2001. Officially termed the Mexico City Policy, these restrictions mandate that no U.S. family planning assistance can be provided to foreign NGOs that use funding from any other source to: perform abortions in cases other than a threat to the woman's life, rape or incest; provide counseling and referral for abortion; or lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their country.

This report is the fourth in a series, including studies on China, India and Pakistan, which examines family planning and other reproductive health services in the developing world. The report highlights the progress countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made towards expanding access to these services and the key challenges they face, drawing on research by and interviews with experts on Africa, and information the authors gathered during visits to African countries.

In 1994, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, 179 nations endorsed an approach to improving reproductive health based on meeting individual needs and respecting human rights. They pledged to share the costs needed to make basic reproductive health care available to all who need it by 2015. Today, however, most donor and developing countries still fall short of paying their “fair share.”