Morning Briefing

"On Saturday April 7th, Joyce Banda became Africa's second sitting female president," Lyndon Haviland, a senior strategy fellow at Aspen Global Health and Development, notes in this AlertNet opinion piece, writing, "President Banda offers women in Africa a second chance to experience women's leadership (Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's recent Nobel Peace Prize demonstrates what can happen when women lead) -- and for the women of Malawi that cannot come soon enough." As "[a] longtime advocate for women's health, education and gender equality, Banda offers women in Malawi hope for a better future," Haviland writes, noting, "As a founding member of the Aspen Institute's Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, Banda has been working on the international stage to accelerate progress toward universal access to reproductive health."