Pathfinder International

06/03/2026

Jordan’s growing green economy is creating new conversations around sustainability, innovation, and climate resilience—at the same time, it is also opening important pathways for women’s employment, leadership and entrepreneurship.

For many women, entering the workforce still comes with structural barriers: limited access to opportunities, mobility restrictions, caregiving responsibilities, and unequal professional networks. However, women across Jordan are increasingly stepping into emerging sectors tied to sustainability, cleantech, environmental innovation, and climate-smart entrepreneurship.

In this edition of our Country-Led in Action newsletter, Anna White, Regional Partnerships Officer and Project Lead, demonstrates how Pathfinder's Improving Leadership and Employability of Underserved Populations in Jordan project works with women and young people to build their skills and connect them to real, sustainable economic pathways.

Read the newsletter: https://bit.ly/4vpiqwg
Subscribe to Country-Led in Action on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/4kVtZa5

06/02/2026

In the heart of Northern Uganda, a transformation is giving critically ill newborns a better chance at life.

Neonatal deaths remain the leading contributor to child mortality in Uganda, with 1 in every 45 newborns dying within the first 28 days of life. The UK-funded Empowering Women for Better Reproductive Health Outcomes (EMPOWER) Program, led by Pathfinder International in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, equipped and fully functionalized three neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) at Fort Portal, Masaka, and Lira Regional Referral Hospitals. These upgraded the health facilities enable health workers to provide advanced interventions, including mechanical ventilation for newborns requiring specialized support. The expanded units now include dedicated sections for intensive care, high dependency care, special care, and kangaroo mother care, creating a stronger continuum of care for small and sick newborns from the moment of delivery through recovery.

During the NICU functionalization process, which involved mentorship of health workers on neonatal resuscitation, intubation, and mechanical ventilation, Lira Regional Referral Hospital—for the first time—successfully ventilated and stabilized a critically ill 6-hour-old, 1.2 kg neonate admitted in the NICU. This moment demonstrated how comprehensive investments in equipment, skills, and health systems can immediately translate into survival for vulnerable newborns.

05/29/2026

Vincent Aseme Talasi, 42, is a father to six children. His wife, Mila Kunzulu, gave birth to their youngest just a week and a half ago. Meanwhile, their eldest is preparing to attend nursing school—15 kilometers away from their village in the K**a health zone of Kwilu Province, DRC.

Vincent was already feeling the financial strain from his first child’s tuition fees, and he had five more educations to budget for… in addition to providing clean water and sufficient food to his growing family every day. What would it be like to keep this up until his youngest was grown? In another five years, would this new baby still be his youngest child? Or would there be more siblings to follow?

One day, when Vincent attended a family planning awareness session in his village, something clicked.

See how the SANRU-Pathfinder consortium reaches couples like Vincent and Mila with access to contraceptive care and counseling through an innovative mobile strategy: https://bit.ly/43zWNxj

SANRU Asbl

Vincent Aseme Talasi, 42, is a father to six children. His wife, Mila Kunzulu, gave birth to their youngest just a week and a half ago. Meanwhile, their

05/27/2026

Across the plains of Northern Tanzania, pastoralist families in Monduli, Kiteto, and Simanjiro depend on livestock, mobility, and the natural environment for survival. Yet today, climate change, prolonged droughts, floods, population growth, and expanding agriculture are placing unprecedented pressure on these fragile ecosystems. For many families, a single health emergency or economic shock can mean selling precious livestock—their main source of livelihood—pushing them deeper into poverty and threatening their future.

To break this cycle, the Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) Northern Tanzania Rangelands Project introduced an innovative Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) approach that goes beyond temporary aid. By integrating economic empowerment, community health, education, and environmental conservation, MACP is building stronger, healthier, and more resilient communities from the ground up.

05/26/2026

Obstetric fistula is a devastating condition that causes physical and psychological trauma for the women who endure it. Yet the condition is completely preventable through timely access to high-quality emergency obstetric care.

As Pathfinder's Ritah Waddimba writes this compelling op-ed:

"Delays in identifying a misaligned fetus, poor management of difficult labor, and hesitant or poorly executed surgical decisions directly translate into preventable structural injuries.

From a health systems perspective, obstetric fistula is the ultimate diagnostic indicator of a breakdown in quality."

Pathfinder's programme has supported 48 women to access fistula repair and care. These women have regained their health, dignity, and the opportunity to participate fully in their communities.

The op-ed calls for policymakers and partners to institutionalize standardized emergency obstetric training, strengthen clinical governance through on-site mentorship and rigid quality assurance systems, and scale up investments in women’s health.

We must ensure no woman ever leaves a health facility with a life altering injury caused by a gap in clinical skills.

Read the op-ed: https://bit.ly/4u3sTwh

Picture: Agaba received treatment at a fistula repair camp in Mubende, Uganbda, hosted by EMPOWERUg.

05/21/2026

You're invited! Join Population Services International, ThinkPlace Global Network, Orpesi Collective, RAES, A360, Jhpiego, JSI and Pathfinder International for our upcoming webinar:

Capturing What Matters: A Human-Centered Design Documentation Guide Launch Webinar & Conversation with Co-authors
Date: Tuesday 16 June 2026
Time: 4:00 PM East Africa / 3:00 PM South Africa / 2:00 PM West Africa / 9:00 AM Eastern

Register: https://bit.ly/3RlEzNc

Great HCD work is happening across global public health and development every day. Too much of it never gets documented, and the field loses something every time that happens.

Participate in the launch of a new guide: Capturing What Matters -- a practical tool to help you capture your process, share what you learned, and contribute to a stronger collective knowledge base for HCD in our sector.

Join the co-authors for a one-hour webinar where we'll walk through the guide, discuss the challenges of documentation, and share examples from practitioners doing it well. We'll also look at how to keep HCD knowledge and the community active in this time of contracting funding.

05/20/2026

Anissa Fataou and her husband, Soumana, live with their four children in Harikanassou village in Niger’s Dosso region. Although married for 12 years, Anissa and Soumana found it difficult to communicate openly about family planning. Like many other couples in rural Niger, their perceptions of family planning were shaped by myths and misinformation.

See how Pathfinder's J-Matassa project reached Anissa and Soumana with reproductive health care and tools for couples' communication:

Anissa Fataou and her husband, Soumana, live with their four children in Harikanassou village, located in the Boboye health district of Niger’s Dosso region. Although married for 12 years, Anissa and Soumana found it difficult to communicate openly about family planning. Like many other couples in...

05/19/2026

Last week, Pathfinder International’s Board of Directors and senior leadership team visited Uganda, stopping at Ndejje Health Center IV to learn more about Pathfinder Uganda’s work and engage directly with frontline health workers and communities.

The visit provided an opportunity to experience how strengthened health systems are improving access to sustained health services for women, young people, and underserved communities. The day concluded with a staff engagement session at our office, creating space for teams to connect, reflect, and share experiences from across our programs and partnerships in Uganda.

We are grateful to the health workers, partners, and teams whose commitment continues to advance this work every day.

05/15/2026

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more women are striving to shape their futures: pursuing education, running businesses, and supporting their families. However, for many, something as fundamental as accessing family planning remains out of reach. Long distances to health facilities, transport costs, stockouts, and time constraints force women to delay or miss contraceptive appointments.

Expanding access to convenient, reliable family planning is therefore not just a health priority; it is central to women’s empowerment and broader development in the DRC. The self-injectable contraceptive is transforming what access can look like. By enabling women to administer the method themselves, when and where it suits them, self-injection removes many of the structural barriers that have historically limited uptake and continuation of contraception.

Through a multi-partner initiative led by Population Services International (PSI) and currently implemented across nine countries, Pathfinder International is supporting the scale-up of self-injectable DMPA-SC across the DRC. The Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) project is supporting the government of the DRC to scale up self-injection across 401 health facilities in 14 health zones in Kwilu and Kassaï provinces.

Learn more about DISC:

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), more women are striving to shape their futures: pursuing education, running businesses, and supporting their

05/14/2026

Last week, our Oumar Onyango spoke to The Standard about how climate change impacts the health of women, girls, and outdoor workers:

"Whenever there is flooding and drought, families are forced to migrate for safety and food, making some to miss out on health care like hospital deliveries, an issue that results in death [...] Climate change is also worsening food insecurity and malnutrition. For example, smallholder farmers are facing unpredictable weather patterns, increased pest infestations, and changing w**d dynamics, all of which are affecting crop yields and food quality."

Read more about how climate change is impacting Africa and what it will take to safeguard the health of people and the environment: https://bit.ly/4wwMp6X

Experts warn that climate change is worsening Africa’s health crisis, driving rising cases of kidney disease, pregnancy complications and stillbirths.