We're pleased to announce that the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, will be joining us for a live webchat on Monday 9 July at 12.30.
We're particularly happy that Mr Mitchell will be joining us in the week that the UK hosts the first global summit on family planning, focusing on what can be done to allow as many women as possible across the world to access appropriate contraception. As you may have seen, following Mumsnet poster and blogger MmeLindt's recent trip to Kenya, 222 million women in the developing world who want to access family planning currently can't get it, and every two minutes a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications; 40 per cent of those pregnancies were unintended. The Summit is hoping to give access to contraception to an additional 120 million women by 2020.
Mr Mitchell has been International Development Secretary since May 2010. Before entering Parliament in 1987, he served as a United Nations peacekeeper in Cyprus and worked in investment banking.
Do please join us on Monday; if you can't make it on the day, please post up your questions in advance here.