This week Annie Lennox is in Malawi attending a World Leaders Meeting on reproductive rights and family planning funding.
As a UN task force crafts a new set of development goals to replace those that will expire in 2015, a high-profile delegation that features former presidents, prime ministers and leaders in global health and philanthropy gathered today in one of the world’s poorest nations to demand a dramatic increase in donor support for family planning services.
The officials are members of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health (GLC). They chose Malawi as the place to make their stand for reproductive rights because the country has made unprecedented progress in improving access to family planning services. The Council delegation in Malawi includes former Irish President Mary Robinson, former Latvian President Vaira VÄ«Ä·e-Freiberga, former South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Minister of Health of Botswana Joy Phumaphi, Musimbi Kanyoro, President and CEO, Global Fund for Women, and Annie Lennox OBE, singer, songwriter and HIV activist.