Suzanne Ehlers

I'm not one for platitudes.

That's why the onslaught of promotional emails for Mother's Day is irritating me. Sure, send flowers as a token of your love and appreciation. Splurge on a spa package for that hard-working wife of yours (on behalf of your young children who don't yet --...

As I predicted last week, the quality of input determines the quality of outcome. My blog in advance of the U.N. Commission on Population and Development, "Teens in the Tinderbox", didn't turn out to be true in the literal sense. But we did have a week of heated...

By Suzanne Ehlers, President and CEO of Population Action International and Pam Barnes, President and CEO of EngenderHealth

The U.S. government’s international HIV/AIDS program, PEPFAR, has a pipeline problem:  $1.5 billion of its funds have remained unspent for more than a year and a half.   Ask any lottery winner how...

Here's a paragraph that might lose you for a second:

Next week, I head to the United Nations to attend the 45th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD). The Commission's work is to "monitor, review and assess the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action at...

On International Women's Day, people around the world should ask: "How do we involve, educate and inspire girls globally?" We believe that access to contraception and comprehensive sex education are two non-negotiable pieces of this formula.

We have progressed far during the last 50 years. In the U.S., contraceptives...

If you haven't heard by now, the world is adding its seven billionth person on Oct. 31, 2011. A few months before this milestone, Population Action International took to the streets of Washington to find out what people thought about our growing population. Their reactions to seven billion speak for...

I just had my annual exam. Yes, that annual exam, ladies.

Aside from the normal things you would discuss with your midwife -- how's the IUD treating you? how's your 15-month-old? -- we also talked shop.

I told her I serve as the CEO of a non-profit...

What Washington insider -- or aspiring insider, in my case -- doesn't relish the chance to be in the same room as Secretary Clinton, the Honorable Tom Ridge, NBC's Chuck Todd and World Bank President Bob Zoellick to talk policy? They were just a few from the lineup at Tuesday's...

On World Population Day, we can expect statements from people all along the political spectrum.

With our population poised to top 7 billion this year, many will say the world is already too big, and getting bigger. Sadly, these voices rarely include a mention of the individuals--women, men and young...

UN delegates and advocates gathered last month in New York to assess progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). With just five years remaining to meet the goals, and maternal health (Goal 5) the furthest off-track, the MDG Summit was an important opportunity for those of us in...

Canada did its best this week to act like George W. Bush. The government excluded family planning from a new maternal health initiative for developing countries it planned to launch at the G8 meeting in June. Like a minority in our country, their Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon claimed that access...

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced an important new climate change financing group yesterday but, out of the 19 people named, no women were included. This is unfortunate because women will bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and are key to any mitigation and adaptation...

A colleague on maternity leave recently sent an e-mail saying what an incredible experience pregnancy is and how she can't help thinking of the millions of women who go through it without the support we take for granted in the U.S. "Here I am focusing on tummy time and music...