NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, October 3, 2014

Sanitation and nutrition, contraception and newborn survival, girls’ education and child survival, infrastructure and maternal survival, women’s incomes and violence — these are just some of the most powerful relationships in global health and development today. Odd couples, you might think.

Maybe they were odd couples once upon a time, but, after 15 years of hard work under the Millennium Development Goals, we know that lack of access to toilets compromises a child’s ability to absorb food. We know that lack of access to contraception is adding 600,000 newborn deaths each year. We know that educating young women can reduce child deaths by half. We know that roads, electricity and water are critical to maternal survival. And we know that women who earn their own incomes are less likely to be abused at home.