15 journalists, 15 voices for health and rights of girls and women

To celebrate International Women's Day (March 8), Women Deliver (a global advocacy organisation bringing together voices from around the world to call for action to improve the health and well-being of girls and women) is honoring 15 journalists for their consistent and game-changing coverage of maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues at the global and national levels.

The 15 honorees have used their voices and media platforms to bring attention to issues like female genital mutilation in Liberia, Cameroon and Tanzania; women's rights abuses in India and Pakistan; teenage pregnancy in Uganda; contraceptive access in the Philippines and Senegal; and sexual exploitation around the World Cup in Brazil.

They were selected from a pool of more than 100 nominations submitted by Women Deliver's partners. An internal review board evaluated the candidates.

"Maternal and reproductive health topics are often sidelined by news managers who see them as soft news best used in the living sections of newspapers," said Director of International Media Programmes at Population Reference Bureau, Deborah Mesce, who leads the organisation's Women's Edition initiative.

Women Deliver opens an online voting contest at http://j.mp/wdcc16 that allows people to cast a vote for the journalist who inspires them the most. Voting will close on March 20, 2015.

To learn more about each journalist, please visit http://www.womendeliver.org/vote-for-your-favorite-journalists-delivering-for-girls-and-women.