Terri Bartlett, who passed away unexpectedly this weekend in Tennessee, was a force of nature, bulldozing her way through bureaucracies, arcane laws and barriers to ensure that the health and rights of women and their families the world over were safeguarded. Using her Southern charms, she would cajole high level policymakers into understanding her worldview of equity and parity. While others would write white papers or deliver keynote speeches, Terri would instead bat her eyelashes, exaggerate her Tennessee drawl and lay out arguments that were difficult to combat. Standing just about five feet tall and with an impish, beautiful face, Terri was the very embodiment of a "steel magnolia." Terri BartlettTerri Bartlett

Terri Lee Bartlett was a native of Tennessee and a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Fellow of the Institute of Politics, Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She began living her ideals right out of college - working as the Director of Volunteers for Planned Parenthood Association of Nashville. Soon, she worked her way up to Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, a statewide advocacy organization. She later founded Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and served for more than a decade as its CEO and President.

Carrie Epps is PAI's Fall 2008 Communications Intern.

In addition to Tod's post from last month, it's not only world leaders, governmental officials, scientists, and scholars that are talking about population.  This Pearls Before Swine comic, printed in more than 400 newspapers worldwide and readily available on the internet, shows a definite mainstreaming of issues related to population.  That this comic has appeared during worldwide economic and ecologic uncertainty should be of no surprise. Having "pointed out the obvious," our elected officials need to be addressing these issues in a more proactive fashion.  And they've got a lot of explaining to do.

The United States government in particular should explain why it contributes the least to population assistance when it holds a vast majority of the world's wealth.  Also, when women have the right and access to reproductive health services in the United States, why does the government consistently undermine those services for women in the developing world?  Because when people start pointing out the obvious, it becomes increasingly obvious that the world can't wait.

As we near the end of a long presidential race in the United States, there are still many policy issues to discuss.   Those working on the many aspects of sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are following the campaign carefully and discussing positions passionately.

This post is not about who to vote for in the presidential race or to weigh in on candidates' policy positions related to SRHR - it is to comment on an aspect of the race that is central to our work that I think has been lost in the dialogue.  I am commenting on this based on more than 20 years working on and writing about gender issues related to SRHR.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most insidious outcomes of gender inequity and while men and boys can be subject to GBV, by and large it is perpetuated on women and girls.  The roots of gender-based violence include gender norms that can result in women being valued less in society than men and turn them into  sexual objects to be controlled by men.  When we think of GBV, physical violence first comes to mind, particularly violence inflicted by intimate partners. A multi-country study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that about one in three women experience some form of violence in their lifetime.

Thailand has a rich and colorful history, but perhaps its most interesting success is its effective response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic over the past 20 years. Thailand effectively mobilized an appropriate response to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1990's, with significant political support and financial backing committed by the government. Advocates launched a successful public awareness and behavior change campaign to inform and enhance public knowledge about the spread of the HIV virus and how to protect themselves.

Spearheaded by one of the most famous AIDS activists in the world and a national hero in Thailand, Mechai Viravaidya (also known as "the Condom King"), thorough his organization the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) initiated a nationwide community-driven response, involving government officials and health ministers, schoolteachers, street vendors, religious leaders and taxi drivers to promote condoms as a lifesaving vehicle to prevent the spread of HIV infections in Thailand. A series of radio and television ads about using condoms aired every hour and comprehensive sexual education about HIV/AIDS was launched in schools to help spread the message.

One of the unique features of the Asia Pacific Alliance (APA) is that it brings together reproductive health (RH), family planning (FP), development and environment nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We in the movement know that all of our activities are linked and mutually reinforcing, but a platform such as APA holds our feet to the fire in terms of active and meaningful collaboration.

Another aspect of APA is that official development assistance (ODA) agencies and other donors, such as private foundations, are invited to the table as members. APA aims to provide an environment for donors whereby they can learn from one another both best practices and lessons learned -- from the Australian Government's overseas aid program (AusAID), to Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA), Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), New Zealand's International Aid & Development Agency (NZAID), the newly merged Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), along with U.S. foundations such as The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Additionally, APA hopes to provide a forum for NGOs and civil society to engage with the ODAs/donors investing in their region, to improve communication and understanding of the important role played by the other.

The Asia Pacific Alliance (APA) is hosting its annual meeting in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. An appropriate location, given the theme of this year's meeting, Refugees and Migrants and their access to Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Conference attendees heard first from fellow APA members, Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand (PPAT) and Population and Community Development Association (PDA), who introduced the migrant and refugee situation through their experiences.

Next, advocates from the Mobile Obstetric Maternal Health Workers (MOM) Project, which delivers maternal health services among internally displaced populations in Eastern Burma; Friends International, which works with street children; the Adolescent Reproductive Health Network on the Thai/Myanmar border; and China Youth Network/Youth Coalition each shared their organization's work with migrant and refugee populations.

Suzanne Ehlers is Vice President for International Advocacy at PAI.

Thailand has been in the international news this last week, as protests against the current Prime Minister's administration broke out in the streets of Bangkok. Here in the north, in the city of Chiang Mai, the annual meetings of the Asia Pacific Alliance (APA) have proceeded without disruption, although the many global examples of political uncertainty and instability, as well as financial collapse and fragility, are heavy on the minds of advocates gathered here.

It is a challenging time to be advocating for increased resources to foreign assistance budgets, much less reproductive health and family planning programs. But that is what APA was created to do: bring together population, reproductive health, development and environment nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from six member countries -- Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand, Australia, and Canada -- and promote and support collaborative advocacy to advance the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)'s Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Official Development Assistance (ODA) agencies in each of these donor countries are also encouraged to be a part of APA's membership, and organizations like PAI are fortunate to be invited to the table as partners.

By Emily Barcklow, Projects Coordinator, and María Eugenia Romero, Executive Director, at Equidad de Género: Ciudadanía, Trabajo y Familia.

A little over a month ago, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled in favor of the constitutionality of the abortion law reform approved by the Mexico City Legislative Assembly on April 24, 2007.

This ruling not only ensures the continuation of safe and legal abortion care up to 12 weeks of gestation for residents of Mexico's capital city, but it also sets the groundwork for replicating this landmark reform in other states.

The law that was passed last year in Mexico City decriminalized abortion up to 12 weeks of gestation and obligated the Mexico City government to implement comprehensive policies and actions that promote sexual and reproductive health and rights. Prior to this reform, abortion was only permitted in case of rape, congenital malformations, non-consensual artificial insemination and in case of risk to the women's health. In addition, women were not penalized for accidental pregnancy loss.   

"Aid effectiveness" is the buzz word of the moment in development.  But are civil society organizations (CSO) paying any attention?  The overwhelming CSO turn-out at the preparatory meetings for the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra (HLF3) last month says a resounding, "Yes."  Civil society groups, including a few like PAI working to promote family planning and reproductive health, are mobilizing around the aid effectiveness agenda, trying to preserve the positive elements of aid effectiveness while addressing and moving beyond the challenges.  

I attended the recent Accra International Women's Forum on aid effectiveness, along with 200 women and men from around the world.  The main message from the Forum is that women, who, as a group, are often overlooked, are integral to development.  There is no aid effectiveness without development effectiveness, and gender equality, human rights and environmental concerns must be recognized as crucial to this goal.  The Women's Forum statement also echoed many of the broader CSO concerns regarding the need for greater democratic ownership of development, and stronger accountability.

Over the last week, the American people and financial markets around the world watched as Congress debated an eye-popping $700 billion dollar economic rescue for the American economy.  Lost amidst the media's coverage of the rescue plan was another Congressional decision -- to punt to the next President and new Congress tough decisions on funding for most FY 2009 government programs, including foreign assistance. 

As World Watch Institute's latest magazine issue "Population Forum" illustrates, concerted foreign assistance that emphasizes international family planning programs is going to be required to address the nexus of population issues that have emerged -- environmental degradation, climate change, as well as poverty, security and the health of women and children.  However, having worked in Togo, West Africa, an area of the world where hundreds of thousands of women already fail to have their family planning needs met, I'm left to wonder: if the next Administration turns away from our obligations overseas, will foreign assistance and developing world women be the first casualties of the economic downturn?

In recent months, a growing chorus of prominent individuals has been sounding the alarm about an issue that has suffered from bewildering inattention in recent years: the negative impact of rapid global population growth on the health and well-being of our planet.  Although rarely stated directly, implicit in these statements (highlighted below) is that more should be done to support voluntary family planning and basic reproductive health care for millions of poor women who lack it.  Why?  Because lack of family planning is a primary cause of the more than 60 million unintended pregnancies worldwide every year and the resulting yearly net increase in global population of 78 million people.

This morning I attended an extraordinary presentation at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars by Thomas Friedman about his new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded.  As you might suspect from the catchy title, the book focuses on how "global warming, the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world, and rapid population growth have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable." [See p. 5 @
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded]

In recent months, Friedman's been joined in bringing attention to the role of population growth in such critical issues as poverty, climate change, hunger, and security by the Secretary General of the U.N., the director of the CIA, former President Bill Clinton, the leaders of the G-8, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the United States Senate.

Under the Constitution and our system of government as it has evolved over the more than 200 years of the country's history, the President has been vested with a number of powers and authorities by which he can imprint his stamp on the interactions of the United States with the rest of the world, including through development and humanitarian assistance. As a result, who occupies the White House can greatly affect what policies govern international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs and how much money is spent on these critical health activities. The President matters. 

The fact that the President matters is nowhere more obvious in the policymaking arena, in two ways -- either through promulgation of policy directives himself or in interpreting and enforcing the laws passed by Congress.

September 26 is World Contraception Day, a global campaign to raise awareness of contraception and the need to reduce the high levels of unplanned pregnancy, and to improve knowledge about reproductive and sexual health.  I celebrated World Contraception Day in Berlin, Germany, at an event on September 24 sponsored by the German Federation for World Population (DSW) and Bayer Schering Pharma.  The event in Berlin focused on teenage pregnancies worldwide and the need for better access to and information among teens to avoid pregnancy.
 
Moderated by Rolf Seelmann-Eggebert, Special Correspondent for North German Broadcasting Corporation, the event opened with remarks by Renate Bähr, executive director of DSW, and Klaus Brill, Vice President of Corporate Commercial Relations for Bayer Schering Pharma.  Marion Caspers-Merk, a Member of Parliament, asked provocatively in her keynote address what Germany would have provided to Sarah Palin's daughter.  She highlighted Germany's programs to reach teens and the country's support for international development programs.

Last week, over 1,000 heads of donor agencies, aid recipient countries, and bilateral and multilateral aid agencies gathered in Accra, Ghana for The Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF3).They were joined by 80 accredited civil society delegates participating in the official meetings, and 700 representatives of over 250 civil society organizations (CSOs) from 50 countries taking part in external meetings. Planned CSO events included the Accra Women's Forum and the CSO Parallel Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which both planned to produce their own sets of recommendations to ensure that CSO priorities and concerns would be addressed in the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), the anticipated HLF3 outcome document.

The HLF3 reviewed progress implementing the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and addressed emerging issues. The Paris Declaration is supposed to increase the impact of aid on reducing poverty and inequality, increasing economic growth, building capacity of aid recipient countries, and accelerating achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Declaration outlined a framework for improving aid effectiveness through a set of principles: (1) Promoting country ownership of development; (2) Donor alignment with aid recipient priorities; (3) Donor harmonization with one another; (4) Managing for results; and (5) Mutual accountability for development outcomes.

All eyes turn to China this week, as it hosts the summer Olympics, but many look with deep suspicion. Many in the West - including the media, policymakers, and the general population - don't  know how to approach such a massive country with an unfamiliar and non-democratic government, and economic growth that is unique in its scale, pace, and approach. Its economic success has drawn criticism (some fair, and some less so), and the press has attributed China's ascendance as a contributor to a number of current crises. The rise in food prices is often pinned on increased consumption by China and neighboring India, and high gas prices have been blamed on China's increased demand for energy which is in turn blamed for carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Does HIV/AIDS still require an exceptional response? That question framed the interactive discussion hosted by the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention at the International AIDS Conference.    

Mitchell Warren (AVAC) launched the dialogue by quoting Richard Horton (The Lancet): "In 2031 will there still be UNAIDS?  Will we still need UNAIDS?  What would you do as the new Executive Director of UNAIDS?"

In the session "Women's Rights Equals Women's Lives," at the International AIDS Conference, advocates and researchers came together to discuss the twin pandemics of gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV.  Researchers Charlotte Watts from the London School of Hygiene and Claudia Garcia-Marcos of the World Health Organization, noted that while the body of evidence on direct biologic linkages between HIV and GBV is limited, the evidence we do have demonstrates an extremely strong correlation between the two.  Not only does the evidence tell us that women who experience gender-based violence are more likely to be at risk for transmission of HIV, but we also know that many of the risk factors for gender based violence are the same as those for HIV -- including gender inequities, poverty, lack of financial independence and lack of education.

While the risk of HIV from gender-based violence is often limited to a discussion of the risk of rape as a transmission factor, Watts stressed that there are many forms of gender based violence beyond rape, including perpetration by an intimate partner (spouse, boyfriend, etc.) rather than a stranger.

"We need to be clear that this is the best researched disease in history. We know what to do to prevent HIV infection, but we're not drawing a straight line between what we know and what we do," stated Elizabeth Pisani, author of The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS.

This session, sponsored by the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention, was a frank discussion among advocates, framed around Pisani's idea of the "sacred cows of HIV" (an analogy taken from drivers in India swerving to avoid cows in the road). What are the "sacred cows" standing in the way of progress in the fight against AIDS?

Chris Henderson is PAI's summer 2008 Development Intern.

Attending Craig Lasher's presentation on modernizing U.S. Foreign Aid was yet another thought provoking PAI brown bag, adding to the cornucopia of great opportunities us interns have experienced during our short duration here. I want to revisit a topic that undermines the efforts Craig spoke of about modernizing foreign assistance, that Carlos Indacochea, a recent addition to PAI's research department, so eloquently brought to our attention. One of how to convince the American populous that foreign assistance should regain comprehensive support among both policy makers and those who elect them.

Within the next few weeks, the President will sign the Tom Lantos and Henry J Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 into law.  This reauthorization will extend the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for another five years and provide unprecedented levels of funding to fight the global AIDS pandemic.

Unfortunately, the passage of the Reauthorization Act is bittersweet as it not only fails to address the ideological policies of the 2003 Global AIDS Leadership Act, but in many cases has even expanded their impact. One of these ideological policies is the so-called "conscience clause," which allows organizations who have a moral or religious objection to opt-out of providing services to which they may object. In the 2003 Act, the clause was limited to objections over HIV prevention or treatment programs, thereby allowing faith-based and other organizations to promote the A(abstinence) and B (be-faithful) of ABC, without fear of retribution or loss of funds for not providing the comprehensive information needed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV.

Katie Bolton is PAI's summer 2008 Social Networking Intern.

Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) president Eleanor Smeal wants women to get angry. "It's a pattern... Family planning is being cut," she declared Thursday morning at the FMF's Intern Hill Briefing, "Saving Women's Lives: The Importance of Funding for Reproductive Healthcare." And she's right. The Bush administration has systematically reduced women's access to birth control, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, and pre- and post-natal care both domestically and internationally since coming into power. USAID funds for reproductive health have been dramatically reduced. Birth control prices skyrocketed for students and low-income women in 2007. Nineteen million unsafe abortions are performed worldwide each year, and 68,000 women die following their unsafe abortion. In the past seven years, there have been more than 175 votes in Congress that have chipped away at our right to basic reproductive health services.

PAI is a founding member of the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention.

As the eyes of the public health community turn toward Mexico City, Mexico, for the XVII International AIDS Conference, HIV prevention will once again take center stage.

The Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention--composed of  more than 50 nongovernmental organizations and their international partners meeting throughout the conference--is eager to learn from new prevention research, incorporating a breadth of biomedical, behavioral, and social interventions. The caucus was created for the specific purpose of promoting HIV prevention supported by sound science at the International AIDS Conference.

Several PAI staff attended the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign annual Tribute Dinner yesterday evening, where Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was honored for his "leadership in support of the U.S. International Affairs Budget."  Surprisingly, in his remarks, Secretary Gates mentioned population as an important factor in countries' stability (emphasis mine):

We also know that over the next 20 years certain pressures – population, resource, energy, climate, economic, and environmental – could combine with rapid cultural, social, and technological change to produce new sources of deprivation, rage, and instability. We face now, and will inevitably face in the future, rising powers discontented with the international status quo, possessing new wealth and ambition, and seeking new and more powerful weapons. But, overall, looking ahead, I believe the most persistent and potentially dangerous threats will come less from emerging ambitious states, than from failing ones that cannot meet the basic needs – much less the aspirations – of their people.

PAI's U.S. Government Relations Team wrote this report.

On Thursday, July 10, PAI and a coalition of more than a dozen partner organizations, including the United Nations Foundation, the Centre for Development & Population Activities (CEDPA), the Communications Consortium Media Center, the Global Health Council, and the Sierra Club, joined with family planning champions Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Russ Carnahan (D-MO) to host a congressional briefing commemorating the 21st annual World Population Day.  This year’s World Population Day theme of “Plan Your Family: Plan Your Future,” highlighted the 40th anniversary of world leaders first declaring that individuals have a basic human right to freely and responsibly determine how many children to have and when to have them.   

The congressional briefing, attended by over 60 advocates and congressional staff, featured remarks by Rep. McCollum, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds use foreign assistance; Rep. Carnahan, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Margaret Neuse, the former Director of USAID’s Office of Population & Reproductive Health; and CEDPA field partners Asih Puji Rahayu (Foundation for Mother and Child Health in Jakarta, Indonesia) and Marilyn Peri (Community Based Health Care in Papua New Guinea).  Moderated by PAI’s Vice President for Government Relations, Tod Preston, the forum provided a timely opportunity for panelists and guests to highlight the need for increasing U.S. funding for international family planning and reproductive health.

Katie Bolton is PAI's summer 2008 Social Networking Intern.

Have you been wondering when PAI would join the social networking world?  Well, wait no longer – PAI now has an expanded online presence on Facebook, MySpace, and Change.org! These profiles, in addition to our YouTube channel, will allow our supporters to interact and organize among themselves, make donations, and tell their friends about the important work PAI does. You can view all of our profiles, even if you're not a member of the social network. If you're a member, add us! If you're not yet, we hope you'll take a look at our profiles and consider signing up to support PAI.

First, stop by our Facebook fan page. You can become a fan of PAI here, share the page with your friends, write on our wall or start a discussion on the boards. We've uploaded photos of our activities around the world and video of our documentaries, including the award-winning "Finding Balance," for your perusal. If you've installed the Causes application, you can also join our cause, "Support International Family Planning!" The PAI blog is also posted on the fan page. You might never want to leave.