World Conference on Women

Topic A: Period Poverty

Topic B: Maternal Health

Period poverty refers to the systemic lack of access to menstrual products, sanitation facilities, and menstrual health education-all of which contribute to a global crisis affecting hundreds of millions of menstruating women. Across many countries in the world, there are people forced to manage their periods using unsafe materials, skip school, work, or other duties and endure pain and stigma in silence. While period poverty is often framed as a hygiene issue, it is fundamentally about gender equity and human rights. The root causes include high product costs, discriminatory tax policies, inadequate hygiene and wash systems, and cultural taboos. Stigma and silence around menstruation have led to a lack of government prioritization for this issue, even in emergency and refugee settings. This committee invites delegates to rethink how states, NGOs, and UN programs can work together to reform menstrual equity whether it be through educational initiatives, product innovation, or humanitarian aid among other things. 

Despite decades of progress in reproductive health care, pregnancy and childbirth remain unacceptably dangerous for millions of women, especially in low-resource countries. Maternal health disparities are starkly shaped by geography, income, race, and structural discrimination. Contributing factors include lack of access to skilled birth attendants, inadequate prenatal care, unsafe abortion access, and poor postnatal support. Conflict zones and humanitarian crises further exacerbate these risks, while climate change and displacement pose new challenges to maternal well-being. Improving maternal health and wellbeing is central to multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and requires coordination across health systems, legal frameworks, and education. This committee asks delegates to explore both policy innovations and humanistic approaches to ensuring that pregnancy which brings the gift of childbirth doesn’t have to be a life-threatening condition for women-regardless of location, wealth, or other identity based factors.