Working together to improve maternal and reproductive health
As a leader in the struggle to improve maternal health in the developing world, FCI works to build the political commitment and financial investment needed to prevent millions of women and babies from dying needlessly from causes that are routinely prevented or treated in wealthy countries. We actively participate in dialogues with  governments of both developed and developing nations; speak out at the United Nations and global summits; collaborate and strategize with advocates for HIV/AIDS, child survival, and other important causes to demand working health systems and effective, accessible health care for all; develop publications and articles that stimulate awareness and action among policymakers, technical experts, and opinion leaders; and and engage in a range of international initiatives and partnerships. FCI’s experience, ability, and agility in working in global health partnerships puts us in a unique position to ensure that Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 — Improve maternal health — and its targets, including reproductive health, remain high on the international development agenda. Key initiatives include:
Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH)
Countdown to 2015
International Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ICEC)
Postabortion Care Consortium
Campaign to End Fistula
Women Deliver
Global Health Initiative (GHI) Coalition
Grupo de Trabajo Regional para la Reducción de la Mortalidad Materna
Plan Andino de Prevención del Embarazo en Adolescentes — PLANEA
Maternal Health Task Force
International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights (IIMMHR)
Global Health Council
Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
Established in 2005, PMNCH joins the maternal, newborn, and child health communities under the “continuum of care” banner. With more than 300 members, PMNCH works to  achieve MDGs 4 and 5. After serving as secretariat for the Safe Motherhood Inter-Agency Group, which put safe motherhood on the world’s agenda, from 1987 through 2004, FCI became co-chair of the board of this new, broader Partnership (serving in that role until 2011) and co-leading its advocacy strategy. Through its leadership role in PMNCH, FCI has worked to develop and build support for the Global Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (2009) and the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health (2010), and focuses on holding governments and other stakeholders accountable for the commitments they made to those critical global initiatives.
Countdown to 2015: Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival
Composed of a range of academic, civil society, government and multi-lateral partners, Countdown to 2015 is a global initiative that monitors, collates, analyzes, and reports on data related to progress on 22 MNCH health coverage indicators in the 68 developing countries that account for 97% of maternal and child deaths. It adds value by forging a clear, evidence-based consensus on priority interventions and coverage  indicators, and by providing a mechanism for holding countries and their partners accountable for results. Countdown was established in 2005 as a multi-disciplinary, multi-institution collaborative effort to track coverage levels for the health interventions proven to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality. A member of Countdown’s coordinating committee, FCI co-chairs the advocacy working group, working collaboratively with partners to develop and disseminate Countdown’s overarching messages.
International Consortium for Emergency Contraception
FCI serves as host organization for the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ICEC), an alliance of non-governmental organizations working to expand access to emergency contraception (EC), with a focus on developing countries. 
In 1996, the year ICEC was founded, only a handful of countries had a "dedicated" EC product on the market. Now women in over 140 countries can obtain emergency contraception — sometimes known as the morning-after pill — and in around 60 countries, EC  is available over the counter. ICEC and its member organizations have played a key role in introducing EC in a wide range of settings. Still, women's access to EC is far from assured, and ICEC addresses new barriers to EC access. Most recently, ICEC and its Latin American sister network — the Consorcio Latinoamericano de Anticoncepción de Emergencia (CLAE) — established a legal committee to bring together lawyers and advocates to address emerging legal challenges to EC availability.
Postabortion Care Consortium
Incomplete abortion, whether spontaneous (miscarriage) or induced, is a global health problem, killing close to 70,000 women each year. Postabortion care (PAC) is a strategy to addres s this problem by treating women with complications, providing family planning to prevent future abortions, and engaging communities.The PAC Consortium was formed over a decade ago to inform the reproductive health community about complications related to unsafe abortion, and to promote PAC as an effective strategy for addressing this global problem. For 2009-2011, FCI is the consortium's host organization, the first non-USAID-funded NGO to lead this important global network of approximately 30 organizations.
Campaign to End Fistula
In 2003, the UN Population Fund-UNFPA and a number of partners, including FCI, launched the global Campaign to End Fistula , with the goal of making obstetric fistula as rare in developing countries as it is in the industrialized world. Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal caused by prolonged labour without prompt medical intervention, resulting in chronic medical problems and social ostracism. The Campaign, now working in 47 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Arab region, has brought fistula to the attention of a wide audience, including the general public, policymakers, health officials and affected communities. FCI works closely with UNFPA on the Campaign's advocacy initiatives and publications.
Women Deliver
Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization bringing together voices from around the world to call for action against maternal death.  FCI organized the groundbreaking Women Deliver conference in London in 2007. Women Deliver has grown into a multifaceted and powerful global advocacy initiative, becoming an independent organization at the end of 2009. It works globally to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling MDG 5, and held the second Women Deliver conference, attracting 3,400 advocates, policymakers, development leaders, health care professionals, youth, advocates, and media from 146 countries, in Washington, D.C. in June 2010. FCI and Women Deliver, while now separate organizations, continue to work together in close partnership, and FCI is a member of the Women Deliver Advisory Group.
Global Health Initiative Coalition
In 2009, following the initial (very brief) announcement of the Global Health Initiative (GHI), a coalition of 25 U.S.-based global health advocacy organizations came together to form the Global Health Initiative Coalition. The coalition initially produced a groundbreaking report on the challenges affecting health and rights in developing countries, and developed unified recommendations on how the GHI, and U.S. development assistance for health in general, should be structured. The formation of the GHI Coalition represents the first time that such a broad alliance has spoken with one voice, calling on the U.S. to take an ambitious, comprehensive approach to global health policy and funding. The coalition includes organizations focused on maternal, newborn and child health, AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, sexual and reproductive health and rights, the health workforce, neglected tropical diseases, health and human rights, and comprehensive primary healthcare, and represents a common commitment to avoid competing for scarce funding resources and to advance a clear vision of the vital importance of addressing health care needs holistically. FCI is a founding member of the GHI Coalition and currently serves as its Secretariat.
Grupo de Trabajo Regional para la Reducción de la Mortalidad Materna
FCI is a founding member of the Regional Task Force on Maternal Mortality Reduction (Grupo de Trabajo Regional para la Reducción de la Mortalida d Materna — GTR), and acts as its Secretariat for the term 2011-2012. The GTR seeks to address maternal deaths in Latin America by supporting national and municipal actions; making available quality maternal health services; increasing public demand for services that high quality, affordable, and accessible; building partnerships; and assuring financial support and economic sustaina bility of maternal health care. FCI also participates in regional efforts including the Andean Plan to Reduce Unwanted Teenage and Adolescent Pregnancy (Plan Andino de Prevención del Embarazo en Adolescentes — PLANEA) and country-level task forces on maternal mortality in Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
- Read about FCI's election as GTR Secretariat
- Learn about the 2010 Conference of Women Leaders, which brought together more than 80 high-level leaders from government, regional and international agencies, and civil society organization
- Download a new guide to best practices for preventing adolescent pregnancy, published in 2011 by FCI and the Plan Andino, based on the experience of six Andean region Ministries of Health and a range of civil society partners
Maternal Health Task Force
The Maternal Health Task Force contributes to shaping collective efforts to improve maternal health worldwide. Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Task Force serves as a catalyst to address one of the most neglected areas in global health, providing a new forum dedicated specifically to maternal health, while reaching out to leaders from allied fields—including neonatal and child health, reproductive health, human rights, and HIV/AIDS—to devise innovative solutions to maternal morbidity and mortality. FCI president Ann Starrs serves as a member of the MHTF Advisory Group.
International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights
The IIMMHR, launched in 2007 at the Women Deliver conference, represents a renewed commitment to women and  their human right to safe pregnancy and childbirth. The Initiative works for the implementation of effective and equitable policies and programs to reduce maternal mortality, secure increased resources at the global and national levels, and promote understanding among key stake-holders on maternal mortality as a human rights issue. FCI is a founding member of the Initiative, and serves on its steering committee, and FCI-Kenya conducted a groundbreaking field project highlighting the links between maternal health and human rights.
Global Health Council
 The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world. Its diverse membership is comprised of health-care professionals and organizations that include NGOs, foundations, corporations, government agencies and academic institutions that work to ensure global health for all. The Council works to ensure that all who strive for improvement and equity in global health have the information and resources they need to succeed.
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