Stories from Haiti and Nigeria this week focused on the grim ordeal women endure when having children in places racked by poverty and conflict. The death toll for women giving birth in Nigeria is horrendous; what can already be a frightening event is made vastly worse by an underfunded healthcare system and a lack of priority given to one of the most essential human experiences. In Haiti, the maternity hospital has the added horror of stray bullets from the ongoing gang warfare outside strafing the wards. The sheer anguish of what pregnant women in both nations endure is something that is unfortunately rarely deemed important by those in positions of power. Overlooked too is the war in Sudan, which unfortunately reached its 12-month marker on Monday. The conflict, started by two competing warmongers, has since sent about 2 million people from their homes and communities into camps and shanty towns in neighbouring nations. On that same day, a UN pledging conference hoping to raise $4.1bn to aid the Sudanese people raised just half that amount. That money was raised at all in current times is to be welcomed, but it remains a small amount to solve a big problem. Tracy McVeigh, editor, Global development
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