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UNFPA

Investing in New Paradigms on Population Issues

By Barbara Crossette | Aug 17, 2011

In recent legislation, two U.S. House of Representative committees have mounted an intense campaign against American aid for family planning internationally. Valerie DeFillipo has been on the front lines of this battle for more than three decades and in July she was named president of Americans for UNFPA, a nongovernmental citizens’ support group for the United Nations Population Fund.

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More Indian Girls Go Missing, a 2011 Census Says

By Barbara Crossette | Apr 27, 2011

When results of India’s 2011 census began to emerge in recent weeks, one statistic was greeted with shock by demographers. The country’s sex ratio of girls to boys at age 6 had plummeted because of gender-selective abortions or the deaths of female infants. For every 1,000 boys counted in India, there were 914 little girls, down from a ratio of 1,000 to 927 in 2001.

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Maternal Mortality's Youngest Victims

By Barbara Crossette | Apr 25, 2011

MEXICO CITY -- Hidden in much of the discussion and speculation about why maternal mortality is defying global efforts to lower it to levels promised by the Millennium Development Goals is one vital statistic: the frequent deaths of adolescent girls too young to bear children.

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Obaid to Head Board of Global Women’s Partnership

By Barbara Crossette | Dec 06, 2010

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, whose 10 years as executive director of the UN Population Fund end on Dec. 31, will be moving immediately to the board chair of the Women’s Learning Partnership, which promotes political and cultural participation for women worldwide, with an emphasis on Islamic societies.

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Using the Arts to Advocate and to Heal

By Barbara Crossette | Dec 02, 2010

Here is an excerpt on how filmmakers helped survivors in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uganda and Liberia relate their stories and thereby assist in their rehabilitation after enduring wars in their countries.

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A Nigerian Doctor to Run the UN Population Fund

By Dulcie Leimbach | Nov 19, 2010

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin has been named the new executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations announced today. He will start Jan. 1, 2011. Dr. Osotimehin is a professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the African spokesman for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

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How Does the World Look Today? Resilient but Battered

By Dulcie Leimbach | Nov 07, 2010

Fiza Shraim is a shining example of how women can muster through the worst obstacles – in her case, living in Gaza – to get what they or their families need under duress. Shraim opened a temporary delivery room at a clinic that women in her community could use when Israeli blockades made it impossible for them to reach hospitals.

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Cholera Spreads in Haiti, Where the Prognosis Was Already Bleak

By Barbara Crossette | Oct 22, 2010

Hurricane Tomas, striking Haiti a glancing blow at the end of last week with heavy rain and winds, has brought flooding that sharply increases the potential for a major cholera epidemic, according to early reports in the wake of the storm.

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US-UN Funding: Congress Adopts Emergency Spending Bill and Begins Work on 2011 Budget

By Alan Averyt | Aug 04, 2010

Before adjourning for its monthlong August recess, Congress sent to President Obama a fiscal-year 2010 emergency spending bill containing nearly $100 million for UN peacekeeping to cover expenses for Haiti. It also began consideration of fiscal-year 2011 appropriations bills to finance US contributions to the United Nations. In an environment of intense political pressure to limit federal spending, the House and the Senate, with a slight exception, met or exceeded the president’s financing requests for UN peacekeeping, US dues to the UN and UN specialized agencies and voluntary contributions to UN programs.

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In Uganda, the UN Links New Ideas to Old Rituals

By Barbara Crossette | Jul 20, 2010

In any country, when violent conflict or catastrophic natural disasters turn lives upside down, old belief systems can be powerful tools in restoring social stability. In poor countries, when outsiders like United Nations agencies are in the mix, their representatives in the field sometimes find that it pays to listen to the wisdom of elders while at the same time introducing new ways of coping with the traumatic disruptions of traditional life.

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