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International Health

The Office on Women’s Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (OWH) provides leadership in international women’s health activities, to exchange scientific knowledge, public health programs, and broad-based educational initiatives to improve women’s health around the world. OWH specially works to promote women’s health through the activities listed below:


President’s Interagency Council on Women (PICW)
President Clinton established the Council in August 1995, on the eve of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, in order to "make sure that all the effort and good ideas actually get implemented when we get back home." At the Fourth World Conference, 189 countries adopted the Beijing Platform for Action. The platform calls for economic opportunity and security for women, quality education and health care, full political and economic participation of women, equality, and the promotion of human rights for women. It is one of the strongest policy statements promoting women's advancement ever made by the international community.

Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the Council’s Honorary Chair, Former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala served as its first chair, followed by Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The Council included high level representatives from executive branch agencies.

The Council was charged with coordinating the implementation of the Platform for Action adopted at Beijing, including the U.S. commitments announced there. It also developed related initiatives to further women's progress and engaged in outreach and public education to support the successful implementation of the Conference agreements. The Council coordinated various outreach events across the United States to celebrate the progress made since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women. These regional events were organized in partnership with non-governmental organizations; colleges and universities; and regional community organizations, and offered opportunities to share best practices, achievements, and lessons learned.

In 2000, the Council published a 5-year review of U.S. Government programs, policies, and initiatives that promote the advancement of women. Entitled America's Commitment, this was a comprehensive, 5-year review which includes federal government programs, policies and initiatives that advance the status of women and girls, catalogued according to the 12 areas of critical concern highlighted in the Platform for Action.

The Council was also charged with leading the U.S Government preparation for Women 2000: the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly in June 2000 which marked 5 years since Beijing, and whereby countries were provided an international forum to celebrate the achievements made since the historic 1995 conference and to reaffirm the worldwide commitment to the Platform for Action.

The session titled: "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development, and Peace for the 21st Century" or "Beijing +5" included a week of seminars and activities related to the 12 critical areas documented in the Platform for Action. Delegates to the United Nations negotiated a substantial Outcome Document that denotes accomplishments and goals for the future to improve the status of women and girls. Portions of the Outcome Documents can be viewed through the PICW website: http://secretary.state.gov/www/picw/beijing/index.html

For more information visit the President’s Interagency Council on Women web site or contact:

Theresa Loar, Director,
The President's Interagency Council on Women
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW, Room 2906 Washington, DC 20520
(202) 647-6227
Fax: (202) 647-5337

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USA/Israeli Women’s Health Conference
The Office on Women’s Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (OWH) participated in the joint Israel-USA Women’s Health Conference. This effort represents a partnership between HHS, and the Israeli Ministry on Women’s Status, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Information and International Relations. Representatives from HHS included the Office of International and Refugee Health, the OWH and other members of the PHS Women’s Health Coordinating Committee.

Dr. Jonelle Rowe was the coordinator of this historic event.

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U.S. Mexico Binational Commission’s Working Group on Women’s Health
The Binational Commission was established in 1981 as a forum for meetings of Cabinet-level officials from the United States and Mexico. The 1996 session of the Commission included the first meeting of the Health Working Group, which was co-chaired by former Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary Donna Shalala and Mexico’s Secretary of Health, Juan Ramon de la Fuente. The Working Group defined four priority areas for immediate emphasis: migrant health, smoking prevention with an emphasis on adolescents, women’s health, and immunization.

The Core Group on Women’s Health, a component of the Health Working group, agreed to look at commonalties between the health ministries and identify specific activities or initiatives which could be jointly tackled by 1998. In general, the group agreed to focus on (1) the development of administrative and policy strategies that would enhance women’s health within the respective national agendas, (2) the development of leadership within our respective ministries to promote and institutionalize a women’s health focus, (3) the building of partnerships with our respective States, medical groups, and non-governmental organizations, and (4) the creation of effective, continuous communication channels for information exchange on women’s health meetings and conferences, research, and clinical guidelines. The Office on Women’s Health in the Department of Health and Human Services (OWH) staff also maintains contact with women’s health representatives from the U.S. and Mexico border states.

Action items for the near future are to update the core group list, to convene a conference call in early 2001 to discuss White House accomplishments, results, and analyze future plans, and to discuss the status of a health card in development for migrant women to carry and use to document their health care history.

The OWH contact person is Carolyn Lofgren.

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World Health Organization Global Commission on Women’s Health
The Global Commission on Women’s Health was established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993. Its purpose is: to promote the adoption and implementation of effective measures at all levels for improving women’s health, and to carry out international and national advocacy on behalf of women’s health centers. In addition to being an essentially political body, the Global Commission is an advisory and supportive body to the World Health Organization and relevant agencies of the United Nations that work with the WHO on women’s health. In carrying out this dual role, members of the Global Commission wished to address many issues spanning a multitude of areas, but agreed that their main role as a strong political body consisted of informing, advocating, and proposing actions to ensure women’s health issues remain high up on national and international agendas and in the media. The Commission therefore saw not only a global role for itself, but also a regional and national one.

The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in September 1995, was seen as an important marker toward which efforts of the Global Commission could be directed, particularly at the national level to ensure that governments and non-governmental organizations adequately addressed women’s health issues.

To that end, members of the Global Commission worked on three specific areas of concern in order to build its agenda for the UN’s 1996 Congress on the Status of Women: policy, advocacy, and normative aspects of women’s health. Within the area of policy, the Commission focused on nutrition, education, work environment, reproductive health, aging, and lifestyle-related health conditions. Areas for advocacy encompassed emerging technologies, strengthening capacities, convening media roundtables, organizing days of action for women’s health, and developing symposia on women’s health issues. Normative aspects would include, for example, health legislation, clinical trials, codes of conduct, human rights, and others. As a product of its work, the Commission presented several reports at the United Nations Fourth World Congress on the Status of Women in Beijing in 1996. The Global Commission’s work continues.

The OWH contact person is Dr. Jonelle Rowe.

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