African First Ladies Health Summit

Challenges Facing Africa's Women

RAND recognizes the scope of Africa's challenges in health :

• More than 536,000 women die each year worldwide from pregnancy-related causes, and though Africa is only 15% of the world population, the majority of these deaths occur in Africa;
• HIV rates in Sub-Saharan Africa average 6%, compared with 1% worldwide.

In April 2009, RAND cosponsored a health summit that focused on maternal health, HIV, and girls' education. More than 20 countries were represented by 13 First Ladies and seven country delegates.