the unbearable notice is; that you've to make up your mind to be the difference and not the other way round else people will misjudge you even though you're not that person.
It’s been an uphill battle over centuries for women to have the right to say and do as they please, and to make decisions over their own bodies, lives, and futures.
When it comes to gender equality, one thing the whole world can agree on is that we’ve not yet achieved it and not one country in the world has reached the milestone of viewing and treating women equally, and acknowledging them as autonomous beings who have a say over their decisions, movements, and bodies.
Few things in this world have been fought over as extensively as women’s bodies.
You’d think by now, in 2023, women would be free to make choices over their bodies and their futures; that we’d have reached a collective understanding that all human beings have the right to do what they want with their own bodies.
Alas, we’re not there yet instead, women’s sexual and reproductive health, their safety, and their rights are at risk the world over.
But to map out our journey to an equitable future, it’s important to know how far we’ve come.
Here are some of the most pivotal moments in recent history that have shaped the fight for women’s bodily autonomy.
This was a huge win after women had fought for it for decades, and scientists had to work around laws that prohibited contraceptive research at the time.
“The ability for women to control their reproductive cycle ushered in a transformation in women’s engagement in society, the economy, and politics in the US”
INSIDERNOTES
1969
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is created.
The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency has been hard at work for 50 years building knowledge, awareness, and capacity on the importance of bodily autonomy, reproductive health and family planning, and to promote strategies and solutions for developing countries that are based on gender equality and human rights.
1984
The US institutes the “global gag rule”.
A.k.a. the Mexico City Policy, this dangerous policy prevents US aid and support for international organizations and partners whose work involves abortion.
These organizations are often prohibited from sourcing funding elsewhere for this purpose.
Between 1984 and 2022, the rule has been enacted and reversed by Republican and Democratic administrations respectively.
1993-1995
World leaders met at pivotal human rights conferences during this time, in Vienna, Beijing, and Cairo.
Recognizing the world was falling behind on progress towards gender equality, leaders united different agencies and offices to create a new organ of the UN system focused exclusively on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Over the last decade, UN Women has made sure women’s rights stay on world leader’s agenda while supporting feminist movements and women leaders around the world.
Roe v. Wade was implemented in 1973 to safeguard the constitutional right to abortion across the US.
In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned this 50 year decision, putting the question of women’s bodily autonomy and rights up for debate once again and putting millions of women’s lives, health, and futures in the balance.
When it was overturned, women in the country and around the world united in protest. The fight continues.
A question for you: have you heard about Zambia’s escalating HIV crisis? No?
Well what about Angola experiencing one of the most intense droughts in its history, have you heard anything about that?
If not, it’s not surprising, because nor have a lot of people.
Despite the world having this wonderful access to information technology where news and stories can be shared globally with just the click of a button, some of the most crucial stories and events are going overlooked.
lobal media attention can be both fickle and fleeting and, often depending on where a crisis is happening or who the people are being impacted, the threat to lives and the urgent action needed can often go unnoticed or underreported.
This in turn, can affect the political and humanitarian attention that each crisis receives.
Humanitarian agency CARE International released a report this month called,
The report dives into the crises that are impacting millions of people yet received the least media coverage of the past year they found that all of them are on the African continent
CARE’s research compares the coverage of these crises to the coverage of major pop culture moments, and the results are… revealing.
In Malawi, for instance, 5.4 million people are facing an acute hunger crisis as a result of tropical storms such as Cyclone Ana with 2,330 articles written about the crisis.
That might sound like quite a lot — until you compare it with the 217,529 articles written about the Chris Rock/Will Smith incident at last year’s Oscars.
That’s almost 93 times more articles than the hunger crisis in Malawi.
According to CARE, the main reason these humanitarian crises don’t get more attention is because they often don’t suit the criteria of being compelling enough news, which, according to experts CARE consulted for the report,
“prioritize dramatic, timely, familiar, unambiguous, and easy to explain stories, which are assumed to resonate with their target audiences.”
InsiderNotes
But now more than ever, as the climate crisis wreaks havoc, the refugee and displacement crisis is the worst it’s been in decades, the global food crisis leaves millions going hungry every day, and conflict is raging across countries and continents we can all play a part in making sure all crises get the attention they need.
And how do we do that? We asked Emily Janoch, Senior Director for Thought Leadership, Knowledge Management, and learning at CARE USA.
“As an individual, diversify your news sources.
Look at what you consume, click on, and share.
If that hasn’t covered one of these crises, start thinking about why, and who might be covering those issues,” she said.
“Also look at who is telling the story,” she added. “Is it someone who is impacted by the crisis?
Does it show the people involved as humans who can act and who deserve better? Or does it only treat them (especially women) as victims?”
This is a result of rising temperatures, with CARE reporting that there’s potential for these droughts to be more frequent due to climate change.
The droughts are causing climate migration, and have impacted food insecurity resulting in 3.8 million people not having enough to eat.
It also doesn’t help that Angola is also one of the countries with the highest food price increases as a result of the war in Ukraine.
2. Malawi: Cyclones, Cholera & Hunger
Health workers treat cholera patients at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe central Malawi on Jan. 11, 2023.
Malawi’s cholera outbreak has now claimed more than 1,000 lives by Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2023 according to the country’s health minister, who warned that some cultural beliefs and hostility towards health workers are slowing down response efforts.
We’ve mentioned that 5.4 million people in Malawi are experiencing an acute hunger crisis as a result of damaging cyclones.
We also need to mention that Malawi’s health care system is under strain due to rising HIV cases and intense cholera outbreaks, seen as a result of not enough access to clean drinking water.
3. Central African Republic: Conflict & Climate Change
One in two people in the Central African Republic don’t have enough to eat.
The changing weather conditions have impacted the soil that the country’s food grows from, while storms and floods have destroyed thousands of homes and left 10,000 children without schools to attend.
The country has also experienced unceasing conflict since 2013, which has resulted in a severe refugee crisis with over 740,000 people seeking refuge across the borders and 500,000 people experiencing internal displacement.
4. Zambia: Increased Poverty, HIV & GBV
More than half the Zambian population lives in extreme poverty — meaning living on less than $1.90 a day and the country is experiencing some of the worst malnutrition rates in the world as a result of economic instability and the climate crisis affecting agriculture.
Meanwhile, more than 10% of people have recently been infected with HIV and, in 2021, around 19,000 people died of AIDS in the country.
Gender-based violence is also highly prevalent in the country, particularly following the #COVID19 pandemic and lockdowns that also saw economic hardship increase across the country.
5. Chad: Unrest & Floods
A top view of one of the biggest camp for people displaced by Islamist extremists in Maiduguri, Nigeria on Aug. 28, 2016.
Droughts, flooding and a shrinking Lake Chad caused in part by climate change is fueling conflict and migration in the region and needs to better addressed, a report said Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.
Armed conflicts and insurgency have remained a major issue in the Sahel region of North Africa for several years, and right now, 6.1 million people in the region are in need of humanitarian aid as a result.
Over 70% of Burundi’s people live below the poverty line, and 1.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to the lack of safe drinking water and inadequate access to health care.
Climate migration has also been a major issue, with 85,000 people being forced to leave their homes following extreme flooding.
6. Burundi: Economic Crisis & Natural Disaster
Over 70% of Burundi’s people live below the poverty line, and 1.8 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to the lack of safe drinking water and inadequate access to health care.
Climate migration has also been a major issue, with 85,000 people being forced to leave their homes following extreme flooding.
A vendor counts her money after making a sale in Harare, Thursday ,June, 2, 2022. Rampant inflation is making it increasingly difficult for people in Zimbabwe to make ends meet.
Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, official statistics show that Zimbabwe’s inflation rate has shot up from 66% to more than 130%.
The country’s finance minister says the impact of the Ukraine war is heaping problems on the already fragile economy.
High inflation and economic instability mean more than half the Zimbabwean population is living in extreme poverty.
The climate crisis, including intense drought periods followed by heavy rainfall, have impacted food production and food security, resulting in food shortages and insecurity across the country.
8. Mali: Conflict & Climate Crisis
Ongoing violence and two coups in 2020 and 2021 have led to citizens fleeing the country in large numbers resulting in 2.5 million children dropping out of school, and exposing women and girls to the threat of sexual violence.
The climate crisis has also hit Mali hard, with floods and droughts contributing to crop failure and increasing malnutrition and hunger in the country.
Cameroon has faced crisis after crisis over the last decade, and currently 3.9 million people are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance that’s around 14% of the country.
There has been ongoing conflict and political unrest since 2016, resulting in 3,000 schools closing down, and citizens becoming internally displaced this despite the fact that there is already a large influx of refugees entering Cameroon to escape violence in the neighboring Central African Republic.
Water and sanitation is also a major issue, with 1.8 million people unable to access clean water.
10. Niger: Hunger & Lack of Development
“In general, Niger is a country of records: one of the hottest countries, it has the highest fertility rate, and the highest population growth in the world,”
The Report Highlights.
Yet, despite these records, little to no investment has been made into the country’s development and climate adaptation.
Natural disasters such as droughts, together with ongoing conflict and insurgency, have led to food instability 4.4 million people are acutely food insecure, and half the country’s children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished.
The COP28 climate summit in Dubai, November 2023. Here’s what you should know.
Many countries had their representatives at the COP28, and still yet are with less or zero knowledge about what really went down well, here’s a brief recap if you fall into this category just a two minute read.
Flooding in India, Cameroon, and Libya. Extreme heat across the US, Europe, and Asia.
A cyclone in Myanmar. A tropical storm hitting Japan, Guam, the Philippines, and Taiwan. The list goes on.
This is not exactly the kind of sentence you’d expect from a qualified climate expert, a group that prefers the more austere language of hard facts.
Yet, these days, “climate scientists are struggling for words,” writes climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.
Instead, she’s started replying to questions about the latest extreme weather event or report about how dire things are with: “I am running out of original things to say.”
This year’s COP is a significant milestone: the first assessment of how countries are faring against emissions cutting commitments made at Paris in 2015 (known as the Paris agreement).
When the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, it was agreed that every five years countries would return with more ambitious plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and tackle global warming.
The #COVID19 pandemic caused COP to be canceled in 2020, making COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, one of the “big COPs.”
The “small COPs,” held in the intervening years, tend to focus on laying the groundwork for negotiations.
COPs usually open with a ceremonial opening meeting.
This is then followed by days of world leaders on stage talking about climate change, generally concentrating either on what their countries intend to do about it or on the dire consequences they are experiencing.
The remaining days have themes such as finance and energy and see politicians and business leaders stepping up to announce various new promises, pledges, coalitions, and projects.
But outside the doors, activists usually rage against superficial commitments and rally against political inaction.
This time, there’s been significant outrage after it was leaked to the Guardian that the UAE’s state oil company has been able to read emails to and from the COP28 climate summit office and was consulted on how to respond to a media inquiry.
Remind me, what was agreed at Paris?
Under the landmark Paris agreement at COP21 in 2015, nations committed to holding global heating to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels, and preferably limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
Though the deal is legally binding, the commitments that countries have made to cut their emissions are not, unless they are enshrined into national or regional legislation.
INSIDERNOTES
Who takes part?
The attendees at COP are dignitaries and Heads of State and Government as well as tens of thousands of government delegates and representatives of civil society, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and the media.
There are 197 parties which are broadly organized in five regional groups: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and Other States (including Australia, Canada, and the US).
At the cluster of COP side events, climate change leaders, experts, and influencers gather to share their stories and solutions at panel discussions, exhibits, cultural events, and more.
What happened at COP27?
After two weeks of fraught negotiations, a “historic pact” was struck at COP27 in which developed countries, which are historically responsible for the climate emergency, agreed to provide climate finance to help poorer countries experiencing climate-related disasters, known as a loss and damage fund.
Alok Sharma, the UK President of COP26, was more scathing about how the conference fared.
“I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5 degrees was weak. Unfortunately, it remains on life support,” he said.
What do we want to happen at COP28?
An End to Fossil Fuels
That means support for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty from world leaders to ensure a Just Transition away from fossil fuels, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, and robust taxing of remaining fossil fuel production.
Cough Up the Climate Finance
Now isn’t the time for baby steps, it’s time to go big: fund a Just Transition in all countries, help countries adapt to climate change, and fund loss and damage.
Protect Climate Activists and Environmental Defenders
Almost 2,000 environmental activists have been killed over the past decade.
We need a human rights approach to all aspects of climate action.
For me, this will always be the year I became a grandparent.
It will be the year I spent a lot of precious time with loved ones whether on the pickleball court or over a rousing game of Settlers of Catan.
And 2023 marked the first time I used artificial intelligence for work and other serious reasons, not just to mess around and create parody song lyrics for my friends.
This year gave us a glimpse of how AI will shape the future, and as 2023 comes to a close, I’m thinking more than ever about the world today’s young people will inherit.
In last year’s letter, I wrote about how the prospect of becoming a grandparent made me reflect on the world my granddaughter will be born into.
Now I’m thinking more about the world she will inherit and what it will be like decades from now, when her generation is in charge.
I can begin to picture it: the tools she will use, the ways she will stay in touch with her loved ones, the problems these innovations will help solve.
We now have a better sense of what types of jobs AI will be able to do by itself and which ones it will serve as a copilot for.
And it’s clearer than ever how AI can be used to improve access to education, mental health, and more.
It motivates me to make sure this technology helps reduce and doesn’t contribute to the awful inequities we see around the world.
I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of innovation to offer every child an equal chance to survive and thrive. AI is no exception.
Of course, AI is far from the only defining feature of 2023.
We are just at the beginning of this transition right now.
This is an exciting and confusing time, and if you haven’t figured out how to make the best use of AI yet, you are not alone.
I thought I would use AI tools for the foundation’s strategy reviews this year, which require reading hundreds of pages of briefing materials that an AI could accurately summarize for me.
But old habits are hard to break, and I ended up preparing for them the same way I always do.
Millions continue to experience unbearable grief as a result of Russia’s war on Ukraine and in the aftermath of the war in Ethiopia.
My heart is broken for the continued suffering of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as for the people of Sudan.
At the same time, more people are being forced to endure hardship as a result of more frequent extreme weather events caused by climate change.
And families around the world continue to be hit hard by rising inflation and slow economic growth.
There’s no question these are challenging times, but I remain optimistic about the future. The speed of innovation has never been faster.
We’re making big strides on tough problems like Alzheimer’s, obesity, and sickle cell disease that will improve the lives of millions of people.
My friend the late Hans Rosling used to say that
“things can be bad and getting better.”
INSIDERNOTES
It’s a good reminder that progress is not only possible but happening every day.
The team at CAPRISA in South Africa is using data to improve treatments for patients infected with both HIV and tuberculosis.
That’s why I remain dedicated to making sure that, even in the face of setbacks, the world continues to do more to help the poorest people.
I do the bulk of this work through the Gates Foundation, where my colleagues remain dedicated to improving global health, education, gender equality, and more.
While I could write a thousand pages about the incredible work they’re doing with our partners, this letter focuses on just a few of the most exciting breakthroughs.
I also write about why I’m optimistic about the world’s climate progress.
Most of my climate and energy work is done through Breakthrough Energy, although the Gates Foundation is helping people in low- and middle income countries adapt to a warming world.
I also continue to privately fund research into other areas like Alzheimer’s disease.
And I still get to advise Microsoft, which gives me insight into what’s coming down the pipeline and how it can be used to make the world a more equitable place.
I’m lucky that my work gives me insight into all the ways the world is getting better.
The challenges we face feel a lot less daunting when you understand what exactly it will take to tackle them.
In this letter, I will share just a few reasons I am optimistic about the year ahead.
I hope they make you as excited about all the progress to come as I am.
AI Is About To Supercharge The Innovation Pipeline.
My work has always been rooted in a core idea: Innovation is the key to progress.
It’s why I started Microsoft, and it’s why Melinda and I started the Gates Foundation more than two decades ago.
Innovation is the reason our lives have improved so much over the last century.
From electricity and cars to medicine and planes, innovation has made the world better.
Today, we are far more productive because of the IT revolution.
The most successful economies are driven by innovative industries that evolve to meet the needs of a changing world.
My favorite innovation story, though, starts with one of my favorite statistics: Since 2000, the world has cut in half the number of children who die before the age of five.
How did we do it? One key reason was innovation.
Scientists came up with new ways to make vaccines that were faster and cheaper but just as safe.
They developed new delivery mechanisms that worked in the world’s most remote places, which made it possible to reach more kids.
And they created new vaccines that protect children from deadly diseases like rotavirus.
In a world with limited resources, you have to find ways to maximize impact. Innovation is the key to getting the most out of every dollar spent.
And artificial intelligence is about to accelerate the rate of new discoveries at a pace we’ve never seen before.
One of the biggest impacts so far is on creating new medicines.
Drug discovery requires combing through massive amounts of data, and AI tools can speed up that process significantly.
Some companies are already working on cancer drugs developed this way.
But a key priority of the Gates Foundation in AI is ensuring these tools also address health issues that disproportionately affect the world’s poorest, like AIDS, TB, and malaria.
“We’re taking a hard look at the wide array of AI innovation in the pipeline right now and working with our partners to use these technologies to improve lives in low- and middle income countries”
Bill Gates
In the fall, I traveled to Senegal to meet with some of the incredible researchers doing this work and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative.
When we first launched Grand Challenges the Gates Foundation’s flagship innovation program it had a single goal: Identify the biggest problems in health and give grants to local researchers who might solve them.
We asked innovators from developing countries how they would address health challenges in their communities, and then we gave them the support to make it happen.
Many of the people I met in Senegal were taking on the first-ever AI Grand Challenge.
The foundation didn’t have AI projects in mind when we first set that goal back in 2003, but I’m always inspired by how brilliant scientists are able to take advantage of the latest technology to tackle big problems.
It was great to learn from Amrita Mahale about how the team at ARMMAN is developing an AI chatbot to improve health outcomes for pregnant women.
Much of their work is in the earliest stages of development there’s a good chance we won’t see any of them used widely in 2024 or even 2025.
Some might not even pan out at all. The work that will be done over the next year is setting the stage for a massive technology boom later this decade.
Still, it’s impressive to see how much creativity is being brought to the table. Here is a small sample of some of the most ambitious questions currently being explored:
Can AI combat antibiotic resistance? Antibiotics are magical in their ability to end infection, but if you use them too often, pathogens can learn how to ignore them. This is called antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, and it is a huge issue around the world especially in Africa, which has the highest mortality rates from AMR. Nana Kofi Quakyi from the Aurum Institute in Ghana is working on an AI-powered tool that helps health workers prescribe antibiotics without contributing to AMR. The tool will comb through all the available information including local clinical guidelines and health surveillance data about which pathogens are currently at risk of developing resistance in the area—and make suggestions for the best drug, dosage, and duration.
Can AI bring personalized tutors to every student? The AI education tools being piloted today are mind-blowing because they are tailored to each individual learner. Some of them like Khanmigo and MATHia are already remarkable, and they’ll only get better in the years ahead. One of the things that excites me the most about this type of technology is the possibility of localizing it to every student, no matter where they live. For example, a team in Nairobi is working on Somanasi, an AI-based tutor that aligns with the curriculum in Kenya. The name means “learn together” in Swahili, and the tutor has been designed with the cultural context in mind so it feels familiar to the students who use it.
Students interact with an AI tutor in a classroom in Nairobi, Kenya.
Can AI help treat high-risk pregnancies? A woman dies in childbirth every two minutes. That’s a horrifying statistic, but I’m hopeful that AI can help. Last year, I wrote about how AI-powered ultrasounds could help identify pregnancy risks. This year, I was excited to meet some of the researchers at ARMMAN, who hope to use artificial intelligence to improve the odds for new mothers in India. Their large language model will one day act as a copilot for health workers treating high-risk pregnancies. It can be used in both English and Telugu, and the coolest part is that it automatically adjusts to the experience level of the person using it whether you’re a brand-new nurse or a midwife with decades of experience.
Can AI help people assess their risk for HIV? For many people, talking to a doctor or nurse about their sexual history can be uncomfortable. But this information is super important for assessing risk for diseases like HIV and prescribing preventive treatments. A new South African chatbot aims to make HIV risk assessment a lot easier. It acts like an unbiased and nonjudgmental counselor who can provide around-the-clock advice. Sophie Pascoe and her team are developing it specifically with marginalized and vulnerable populations in mind—populations that often face stigma and discrimination when seeking preventive care. Their findings suggest that this innovative approach may help more women understand their own risk and take action to protect themselves.
Could AI make medical information easier to access for every health worker? When you’re treating a critical patient, you need quick access to their medical records to know if they’re allergic to a certain drug or have a history of heart problems. In places like Pakistan, where many people don’t have any documented medical history, this is a huge problem. Maryam Mustafa’s team is working on a voice-enabled mobile app that would make it a lot easier for maternal health workers in Pakistan to create medical records. It asks a series of prompts about a patient and uses the responses to fill out a standard medical record. Arming health workers with more data will hopefully improve the country’s pregnancy outcomes, which are among the worst in the world.
Tonee Ndungu whose team is developing Somanasi shows off the latest version of their personalized education tutor.
We can learn a lot from global health about how to make AI more equitable.
The main lesson is that the product must be tailored to the people who will use it.
The medical information app I mentioned is a great example: It’s common for people in Pakistan to send voice notes to one another instead of sending a text or email.
So, it makes sense to create an app that relies on voice commands rather than typing out long queries.
And the project is being designed in Urdu, which means there won’t be any translation issues.
If we make smart investments now, AI can make the world a more equitable place.
It can reduce or even eliminate the lag time between when the rich world gets an innovation and when the poor world does.
45'MEDIA 