In 2006 the Special Session of African Union Health ministers adopted the Maputo Plan of Action for implementing the continental Policy Framework on Sexual and reproductive Health and rights. After nearly 15 years, the African Union is working with IPPF Africa Region and a team of experts to review status of its implementation ahead of 2015.

The UN Secretary-General plays a crucial role in tackling global challenges and improving the lives of seven billion people. It is vital that the best person is chosen for the job. But the selection process is secretive and outdated. Just five countries hold sway over a decision that affects us all. This must change.

The world needs good leadership. Help us get the Secretary-General we need.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL TURNS HIS BACK ON RESOLUTION 1325

Open Letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

Today, October 31st, 2014, you threw the struggle for gender equality into reverse. You established a High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. You appointed fourteen members: eleven men and three women.

To the Islamic State, Syrian women are slaves. To much of the rest of the world, they are victims.

In 2007, at the height of the Iraq War troop surge, Suaad Allami opened the country's first all-female legal clinic in her hometown of Sadr City, one of the poorest Baghdad suburbs. Since then, in addition to serving in local and provincial government, she's continued to provide free legal services, medical care, and vocational training to vulnerable women and girls.

An award-winning Iraqi lawyer and activist for women's rights from Sadr City in Baghdad, Suaad Allami founded the NGO “Women for Progress” in 2007. It manages a legal clinic and “one-stop shop” for legislative advocacy, domestic violence counselling, vocational training and other services.

As world powers deploy military missions to fight ISIL*, the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict is urging them to prioritize ending widespread sexual violence by ISIL and other militant groups in Iraq. The Campaign also warns that without the inclusion of Iraqi women in diplomatic efforts to establish peace, violence will worsen.

If we are serious about peace, we must take women seriously. Not only are women half the world's population, they bring to the peace table issues that are not seen and experienced -- and will not be brought up -- by men. It just makes sense but we are still not doing it.

So we are powering a social movement that will demand that governments and international organizations like the United Nations take women seriously.

Honoring Refugee Women & Youth Leaders Fighting to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence

Accepting Nominations for Honorees

Deadline: October 31, 2014

The adoption of the Open Working Group final outcome document "is a significant step, but SDGs still lacking real ambition for urgent transformational change the world needs to achieve gender equality, women's human rights, sustainable development in harmony with nature, and end inequalities" said a statement released by the Women's Major Group on 21 July 2014.