Sarah Barnes
Sarah B. Barnes is the project director of the Maternal Health Initiative and the women and gender advisor at the Wilson Center, in Washington, D.C.
Sarah leads the planning, development, and implementation of seminars, workshops, and conferences focusing on maternal and reproductive health, gender, family planning, women’s and girls’ empowerment and leadership, health systems and the healthcare workforce, infectious and non-communicable diseases, child and adolescent health, and health access in post-conflict and humanitarian settings. She conducts research related to women’s health and leadership, as well as health security and economic empowerment. As the women and gender advisor, Sarah coordinates the Wilson Center’s programmatic focus on women and gender through collaboration with its regional and thematic programs.
Prior to the Wilson Center, she completed her MPH in Reproductive Health and Community Assessment from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and her MA in Women’s Studies from The George Washington University. Sarah has spent much of the past decade living and working in Beijing, China, and Bangkok, Thailand, where she worked on maternal and newborn health programs, conducted research, and evaluated health projects.
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What Does a Biden-Harris White House Mean for Women and Girls? Everything.
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The significance of the Biden-Harris administration for the world’s women and girls cannot be overstated. The current status of women and girls is grim. The COVID-19 pandemic and four years of dangerous policies designed to strip women and girls of their reproductive and economic autonomy and punish them—first for their biology, and second for their gender—have slowed and even reversed decades of progress toward gender equity. Systemic racism and policies meant to further exclude and disenfranchise minority communities have targeted women of color with tragic results.
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The Unseen Side of Pregnancy: Non-Communicable Diseases and Maternal Health (New Report)
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Around the world, approximately 18 million women of reproductive age die each year because of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and two in every three deaths among women are due to an NCD. In fact, NCDs have been the leading cause of death among women globally for at least the past 30 years. And yet, women’s specific needs are often excluded from conversations about NCDs. They are underrepresented in clinical research and the effect of NCDs on women in particular is rarely considered. NCD-related symptoms during pregnancy are commonly misinterpreted or dismissed by clinicians.
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International Day of the Midwife: A Global Call to Action
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“Today is the International Day of the Midwife, a day when we come together as a global health community to celebrate midwives, and the commitment of the midwifery profession globally to saving lives and upholding the rights of women to a safe and positive birth,” write the authors of the Global Call to Action: Protecting Midwives to Sustain Care for Women, Newborns and their Families in the COVID-19 Pandemic. Midwives are essential to the health and protection of women and newborns. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 83 percent of all maternal deaths, stillbirths, and newborn deaths could be averted with the full package of midwifery care.
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ICPD25: Midwives are a Key Part of any Health Workforce Dream Team
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“Midwifery is a fix, it is not an add-on,” said Franka Cadée, President of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25. The World Health Organization designated 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife in recognition of the invaluable contributions of these two professions. To meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, midwives and nurses must be valued and utilized as essential members of the health workforce. Increased utilization of skilled midwives will also help countries achieve universal health coverage and improve access to sexual and reproductive health services, two key actions from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). -
Safe from the Start: Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Times of Conflict and Crises
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“As a leader in providing global humanitarian aid, the United States must be a leader in protecting all aid recipients,” said Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-6) at a recent event on Capitol Hill about gender-based violence in humanitarian settings. A violation against human rights, gender-based violence (GBV) is deeply rooted in gender inequality. It’s a global phenomenon that involves sexual, physical, and/or psychological violence, including child marriage, female genital mutilation, and other harmful practices.
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ICPD25: Quality of Care and Universal Health Coverage Should Be Basic Human Rights
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The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 was an opportunity for the global community to re-commit to the unfinished objectives of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development’s (ICPD) Programme of Action and accelerate the progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. -
ICPD25: I March for Gender Equality
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The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 came a quarter century after the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo in 1994. Pledges made 25 years ago by 179 countries recognized that human rights, including reproductive rights, were fundamental to development and population concerns. A rigorous Programme of Action was created to reduce maternal deaths, ensure access to family planning, and protect women and girls from gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation and child marriage. -
Empowered Midwives Could Save More Lives
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“Midwifery is what women want and what the world needs,” said Anneka Knutsson, Chief, Sexual and Reproductive Health Branch, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at the Fourth Global Midwifery Symposium held at Women Deliver on June 2, 2019. More than 200 people, mostly midwives and global midwifery experts, attended the symposium titled, “Empowered Midwives, Transformed Communities.” Organized by UNFPA, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), and World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Jhpiego, UNICEF, Laerdal, and the Canadian Association of Midwives, the all-day symposium highlighted how the midwife-led continuity of care model and women-centered care can improve outcomes for women, their newborn, and their families. The discussion also focused on the importance of enabling environments and productive collaborations between midwives and other health professionals.
