New York City: April 6, 1998. The International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC), one of the world's leading organizations working to ensure women's sexual and reproductive health and rights, installed Adrienne Germain as its new president as of April 1, 1998. Ms. Germain, named president-elect in October 1997, had served as IWHC vice president since 1985. She succeeds Joan Dunlop, IWHC's president for the past 14 years.
Ellen Chesler, chair of the IWHC Board of Directors, announced Ms. Germain's appointment, stating "Adrienne is the perfect person to lead IWHC forward. She combines a profound understanding of the complex issues involved in women's health with a passionate commitment to forging international alliances to improve women's lives. She is practical, intellectual, and visionary in the same breath."
"I see IWHC as an organization that works to open doors for women and to create space for action on many fronts," said Ms. Germain. "I am excited to become its president at a time when governments and civil society are acting on the global commitment to secure the health, empowerment, and rights of women, made in recent international conferences.
"Strong political resistance to implementing this agenda exists in the U.S. and across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. That is why IWHC will continue to strengthen and broaden alliances between domestically oriented activists and those who work internationally. IWHC will continue to support women everywhere to organize and advocate on their own behalf and to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded in the corridors of power."
The work of IWHC is driven by compelling realities of women's lives:
Most of these deaths, injuries, and illnesses are preventable.
IWHC works through three core programs -- Regional, Global, and Communications -- to help build women's organizations and international alliances to generate the political will needed to improve women's lives. Regional programs provide moral support, collegial and technical assistance, and grants to women's health organizations and leaders in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Global Programs advocate for reproductive health and rights policies and programs in international agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the UN Population Fund. The Global and Regional Programs are buttressed by a Communications Program that produces publications and works with the press to generate interest in and commitment to women's health and rights.
Ms. Germain has worked in close partnership with IWHC president Joan Dunlop over the past 14 years to transform IWHC from an organization with one donor, three staff, and $17,000 in the bank into an organization with 26 institutional and 35 individual donors, 22 staff, and a $4-million budget. As vice president, Ms. Germain was the principal architect of IWHC's international programs. She was a member of the official U.S. delegations to the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo (1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995). Among her many distinctions, Ms. Germain serves on the advisory committees of Human Rights Watch/Asia and the Women's Rights Project of Human Rights Watch, on the editorial board of Reproductive Health Matters, and on the steering committee of the Global Forum for Health Research.
Ms. Germain is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an advisor to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). She was the first woman to serve as a Ford Foundation resident representative, directing a grants program in agriculture, rural employment, international economics, women's rights, arts and culture, and reproductive health for four years in Bangladesh. She is an alumna of Wellesley College and the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned degrees in sociology and demography.
Founded in 1980, the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) is a non-profit organization based in New York that gives technical, financial, managerial, and moral support to women's organizations, advocacy groups, health and rights activists, and service providers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. As a catalyst for action, IWHC forges alliances among diverse groups of women and men to shape the health and population policies and programs of national governments and international agencies. IWHC publishes reports and convenes meetings on critical or neglected issues in women's health.
| IWHC HOME | NEWS INDEX | PREVIOUS INDEX |