UNFPA leads a coalition of organizations committed to the prevention and treatment of fistula, an isolating disability that results from unrelieved obstructed labour. This report, from the second meeting of the working group, documents the considerable progress that has been made in bringing fistula to wider attention, in collecting data about it, and in developing strategies to end fistula in the developing world, just as it has been virtually eliminated in industrialized countries.

This publication highlights the importance of the ICPD Programme of Action, the "Cairo+5" discussions and subsequent experience and agreements as we mobilize to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Every minute a woman dies from lack of life-saving emergency obstetric care. Addressing this need is the centrepiece of UNFPA's efforts to make motherhood safer. The new Maternal Mortality Update explains the critical importance of timely medical interventions hen complications develop -- as they do in more than 5 per cent of all deliveries. It also documents UNFPA's efforts to reduce maternal mortality throughout the developing world.

For too long, efforts to reduce maternal mortality stalled, in part because the facts underlying the problem --and the best strategies to address it --were poorly understood. This report documents UNFPA's efforts to address maternal mortality using a strategic and practical evidence-based approach in a region where data has been scarce,and where too many women have died. Increasing access to emergency obstetric care is central to this approach.