Earlier this week, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced its new pledges totaling $11.7 billion from many donor governments as well as other private sources like Chevron, the United Methodist Church, and the Gates Foundation.

Yesterday, donor countries and corporations pledged a record-setting $11.7 billion to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The largest pledge came from the United States government—$4 billion over the next three years, which is an increase of nearly 40% over past commitments and the largest increase of any donor country.

When we talk about the “health workforce crisis” or “human resources for health,” this abstract language can obscure the suffering of people in need.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman is likely to deliver her baby without a skilled birth attendant, making her chance of dying unacceptably high.

Last month, I was in Zambia, a country especially close to my heart. I was born in Zambia and lived there through the end of high school.

Sexual violence is a reality of the developed and the developing world. Globally, one in three women experience sexual violence in their lifetimes.

Entering a one-room health clinic in Cambodia’s Pursat Province, I saw a heavily pregnant woman suffering on the dirt floor. A midwife was the lone health worker staffing this rural post.

On Monday, Amnesty International launched the “death clock” in Times Square in New York City. Every 90 seconds, it ticks off another woman’s life lost from pregnancy-related causes.

The “Maternal health: digital” panel closed the conference with exciting, new, and innovative ways for using technology for global health and maternal health issues.

On a recent trip to Malawi, I visited the rural community of Matapila outside of the capital, Lilongwe, where a theater group was performing a series of short plays on how couples negotiate sex and make decisions about if and when to have children.