Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization focused on improving maternal health. The organization is based in New York, and its work covers a number of areas including access to a healthy diet, clean water and sanitation, health services, and appropriate education during pregnancy and childbirth. It is targeted towards reducing maternal mortality and increasing access to reproductive health.
Women Deliver was founded by Jill Sheffield, and launched at the Women Deliver conference in London in October 2007.
On June 7 to June 9, 2010, Women Deliver hosted a second conference in Washington, D.C., attended by around 3,500 people from 146 countries.
Women Deliver's third conference, Women Deliver 2013, was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from May 28-30, 2013, with around 4,500 participants from 149 countries.
The fourth Women Deliver's global conference was held in Copenhagen from 16-19 May 2016, following the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The 2019 conference was held in Vancouver, Canada on 2-6 June.[1] The sixth conference was held on 17-20 July 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda.[2]
In 2020 the organization issued a public apology after some staff spoke out about a culture of racism;[3] they also launched an internal investigation into accusations of white savior complex, 'white faux feminism' and toxic cliquish behavior. The investigation was completed four months later, finding that no one single person was responsible for the "challenging" environment.[4] One staff member called this a "slap in the face" to junior and mid-level staff, and Katja Iversen resigned as president of the group.[4] Women Deliver issued a statement committing to changing the working environment.[5]