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Giving universal access to reproductive health services
Message for World Population Day from the Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin
Giving birth is typically the most joyful moment in a woman’s life. Yet this very process takes the life of so many women worldwide. Every day, some
800 women
die in pregnancy or childbirth from complications that are very often preventable. And for every woman who dies, around 20 more suffer debilitating childbirth injuries, such as obstetric fistula. We already have an international consensus on how to address that. All we need now are resources and accelerated and sustained action. Statement in English /
Français /
العربية
/ Espanõl
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's World Population Day message
The world’s population has more than tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945, and keeps growing. With more than 7 billion people now inhabiting the planet, we face ever greater demands on shared resources and significant challenges to the achievement of internationally agreed development goals. Statement
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Eritrea launches Campaign on Accelerated Reduction for Maternal Mortality
Eritrea is among a few African countries that are on track to achieve the MDG targets of reduction of under-five mortality (from 125 per 1000 in 1995 to 75 per 1000 in 2002). And it has significantly reduced maternal mortality (from 998 per 100,000 in 1995 to 450 per 100,000 in 2005). Read the full statement
by Mr. Bunmi Makinwa, Africa Regional Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, at the launch of CARMMA in Asmara, Eritrea on 14 September 2010.
Access for all: supplying a new decade for reproductive health
Statement of UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin, presented by Bunmi Makinwa, Africa Regional Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 22 June 2011
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My friends, I am proud to lead UNFPA and I am proud of the work that we are doing together. We have come a long way. Ten years ago, the Meeting the Challenge gathering in Istanbul helped put the issue of reproductive health supplies on the global agenda.
As a long-time doctor and former minister of health, I am acutely aware of just how much we depend on these crucial supplies – and how little we can do without them.
Truly, without supplies, our ICPD and Millennium Development Goal promises are just dusty dreams in the distance. Reproductive health supplies underpin success in maternal health, family planning and HIV prevention.
Read the full statement
A Global Agenda for seven billion
Statement by Ban Ki-moon,Secretary-General of the United Nations.
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NEW YORK – Late next month, a child will be born – the 7th billion citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know that the baby will enter a world of vast and unpredictable change – environmental, economic, geopolitical, technological, and demographic.
The world’s population has tripled since the United Nations was created in 1945. And our numbers keep growing, with corresponding pressures on land, energy, food, and water.
The global economy is generating pressures as well: rising joblessness, widening social inequalities, and the emergence of new economic powers.
Read the full statement.
Call to global community to end Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
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Every year, over three million women and girls face the risk of genital mutilation and cutting. The practice has serious immediate and long-term health effects, and it is a clear violation of fundamental human rights.
Worldwide, 100–140 million have already undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). It has become a global problem requiring immediate and targeted solutions.
UNFPA and UNICEF work together in supporting communities to put an end to FGM/C. Through partnerships with governments, civil society organizations, religious leaders and community groups, we are making real progress.
Read the full statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin on International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting on 6 February 2012.
Discrimination begins before birth
Statement by Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, as published in The Tribune, India, on 8 May 2012
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Since Amartya Sen first brought global attention in the 1990s to Asia's "missing women," the problem of prenatal sex selection has worsened in a number of countries in the region, with some reporting up to 25 per cent more births of boys than girls.
Read the full statement
Remembering and honouring our mothers
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in Huffington Post
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The world is home to 7 billion people, but how far have we come?
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The population milestone is a reminder that there is much work to do on sexual and reproductive health and HIV if we are to meet the millennium development goals by 2015. The world's population reaching 7 billion on Monday is an occasion to take stock of how far humanity has come in promoting the right to the highest attainable standard of health. As a key strategy to accelerate progress, the international sexual and reproductive health and HIV communities are increasingly joining forces and reaching out to the most vulnerable and under-served populations.
Read the full statement by Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, that appeared in The Guardian on 31 October 2011.
Zero tolerance of violence a must so all women live to fullest potential
Statement by Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, as published in The Huffington Post
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Friday, November 25th, was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the beginning of the days of activism against gender violence. Why does this matter? Consider that worldwide, one in three women has been beaten or abused in some one way or another, most often by someone she knows. One in five women worldwide will be a survivor of rape. One woman in four has been abused during pregnancy. The majority of assaults are perpetrated against women who are young.
These numbers are only the tip of the iceberg. Countless cases go unreported due to stigma, discrimination and fear of further violence. Sometimes violence occurs in the home, but it also occurs during war and in the aftermath of natural disasters and catastrophes, such as earthquake in Haiti in 2010. What can be done about such a seemingly intractable problem?
Read the full statement
