Explain the work you do at the UN.
Working at the UN really gives us a global view… because the other thing we do is work technically [and] principally in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. So when you want to work on some of the issues, like maternal mortality reduction, and you arrive in a country and you know they’ve signed the documents at the UN, you say, the government truly, seriously, deeply is supportive of these issues… so, let’s just get active… and save some women’s lives.
What is the role of FCI?
We do the global advocacy, the technical work locally, and supporting that is a whole range of good looking, seriously wonderful materials that support both the global work and the technical work in countries…
Tell me about your educational materials in relation to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Did the MDGs fully encompass reproductive health?
No. The fact is the US government did not want sexual and reproductive health and rights to be in the MDGs, so they’re not there. So we said, look, you can’t get to your other goals if you don’t work on this issue as well… so we put together briefing cards. These are cliff notes for the UN. We organized these forty-four organizations to work with us—all these are global groups. So we said, we’ll visit all the missions at the UN if you take copies of these to capital cities. So, we’ll cover the headquarters (and all the 192 missions) at the UN if you get them into the hands of the people who are going to come.
[She shows me the briefing cards.] … Our materials are viewed as attractive, which we try to make them, because we deal with difficult issues—so they might as well look good! The other thing is, people know that they’re honest and you can totally rely [on the cards]… we give you footnotes and figures, we tell you where they’re from… it’s important to have credibility… especially given how difficult the topics are… So when all the countries came to the special session, the outcome was that enough governments had sent the message: you need sexual and reproductive health. We wanted one target to the fifth goal [5th MDG] and we got it! It was that sexual and reproductive health services be available to all by the year 2015… It’s not an MDG, but it’s a target. And it’s now there.
What other global meetings can you talk about?
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