We often talk about how countries grapple with the challenge of building and maintaining a health workforce that can deliver high-quality health services. In part, it’s a problem of too few health workers or a poor mix of the right skill sets or geographic distribution.

Reading Samuel Loewenberg’s article, “Ethiopia Struggles to Make Its Voice Heard,” I thought, finally, someone is speaking out about something too many of us remain silent on—the vast gap in some countries between actual needs and donors’ perceived priorities, particularly when it comes to HIV/AIDS funding.

I woke up at 5am for the kick-off event of the third annual National Campaign to Reposition Family Planning in Senegal.

Working in the field of global health we often hear the global health workforce shortage: we don’t have enough doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, community health workers in developing countries. This is true, but what we hear less about is how we manage and support the people we do have.

Recently, I was in Indonesia for the International Conference on Promoting Family Planning and Maternal Health for Poverty Alleviation.I know that most of us working in reproductive health, especially family planning, fervently agree that ensuring universal access to care and services needs additional resources and attention.

Many young people came out to learn their statuses during the 2nd annual HIV testing campaign in Tanzania's Shinyanga region.

Bata Geleto walks up to a small mud house in Shashemene, a town in the southern region of Ethiopia. She carries a large, blue bag and an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as she walks house...

Although in many developed countries running water that is safe for drinking and bathing and working toilets are ubiquitous, a third of the world’s population goes without these luxuries.

Things might have turned out differently had Shashitu delivered a month earlier. Things might have turned out much worse.

On my trip to India last month, I didn’t plan to focus on maternal health care, but walking through the maternity ward in Bihar, I couldn’t help but worry about the long lines and hours that keep a woman waiting to see a doctor.