NEID Global: Women's Empowerment: Maternal and Reproductive Health

Globally women have made great strides forward in the last 30 years, yet much work remains on many fronts to create the gender-balanced world humanity needs to thrive. One chief lever of women’s empowerment, and a ground floor to basic human flourishing, is the capacity to have healthy pregnancies and plan childbearing. Yet, in many places around the world, basic maternal and reproductive health is still inaccessible for many women and is laden with taboos, negative stigma, and vulnerable to endless backlash. In this current political climate, funding for family planning has taken a hit but many, like Melinda Gates, are trying to step into the gap to mainstream maternal and reproductive health as a human right and as a key strategy of poverty alleviation. “Contraceptives,” says Gates, “are one of the greatest antipoverty innovations in history. When women are able to time and space their pregnancies, they are more likely to advance their education and earn an income—and they’re more likely to have healthy children.” Stronger, more empowered women lead to stronger communities with better health outcomes for all members of the family.

NEID’s Global Women’s Empowerment Giving Circle will meet once a month from December to June to learn together about the global landscape surrounding maternal and reproductive health as an essential part of poverty alleviation efforts and devise a grantmaking strategy to fund a shortlist of organizations together. NEID Global membership is required to participate in a Giving Circle and each participant will ultimately be expected to contribute funds. NEID Global members will be asked to contribute a minimum of $1,200, while new-members are asked to first become NEID Global members ($500) and then contribute $1,000 to the Circle.