U.N. set to announce expansion of 'Every Woman Every Child' program

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday is expected "to announce a significant expansion of the organization's ambitious global program to tackle infant and maternal mortality and boost access to reproductive health over coming years," the Financial Times reports. The announcement "will highlight the doubling of commitments from governments, the private sector and non-profit organizations on funding and policy initiatives for the 'Every Woman Every Child' program," the newspaper writes (Raval et al., 9/19). The announcement comes "[a]s the U.N. General Assembly opens a new session" and is "being called on [by the international community] to provide more family planning services to hundreds of millions of women," according to VOA News (DeCapua, 9/19).

"Of the world's 49 least-developed countries, 40 have committed to participate in the program, up from 36 last year," and 10-year "[f]unding is set to increase to more than $50 billion, with 200 commitments, from the $40 billion pledged by public and private sector participants at the program's launch last September," the Financial Times writes. The newspaper adds, "Last year, $1.1 billion of the total $40 billion of financial commitments made came from the private sector, 14 of the 127 donors" (9/19).