UN Under-Secretary-General and UNFPA boss to visit The Gambia

The Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Natalia Kanem will visit The Gambia from 8 to 10 August, 2019.

According to a dispatch from UNFPA office, this first official visit is part of celebrations of 50 years of UNFPA’s existence, the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, and will be an opportunity to galvanise support towards the Nairobi Summit on ICPD+25, to be held from 12 -14 November, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya, on the theme, Accelerating the promise.

Accompanied by the UNFPA West and Central Africa Regional Director, Mr. Mabingue Ngom, the Executive Director will aim at getting the commitment of government and other stakeholders to accelerate the implementation of promises made at the ICPD in Cairo in 1994.

At that conference 25 years ago, world leaders from more than 179 countries, including all African countries, pledged to reduce the number of preventable maternal deaths, to respect sexual and reproductive health and women’s rights and to end gender-based violence and harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation.

While in The Gambia, the Executive Director will meet with government authorities, UN agencies, technical partners, young people, as well as UNFPA staff, and at the top of her agenda, will be to discuss plans for the upcoming Nairobi Summit on the ICPD25.

Dr. Natalia Kanem will participate in a Road to Nairobi Temperature Check Youth Bantaba with young people, following which she will be hosted to a partnership dinner organised by Government of The Gambia in collaboration with UNFPA The Gambia.

This dinner will mark The Gambia’s official commemoration of UNFPA’s 50th Anniversary and the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development.

Additionally, she will pay a courtesy visit to the Presidency, where she will advocate for strong commitments towards ending the unmet need for family planning, ending preventable maternal deaths and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices in The Gambia.

Similarly, Dr. Natalia Kanem will meet with the National Population Commission, where she will discuss the importance of UNFPA’s life-saving work in achieving the population and development agenda, and the need to prioritise investments in women, youth and adolescents, in the country’s development efforts.

Dr. Natalia Kanem was in October 2017 appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Dr. Kanem, a Panamanian, is UNFPA’s fifth Executive Director.

She had been serving as Acting Executive Director since June, and as Deputy Executive Director, Programme, since July 2016.

She was also the UNFPA Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania from 2014 to 2016 and has held senior positions in the Ford Foundation and other non-governmental organizations and institutions.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University in history and science, Dr. Kanem holds a doctor of medicine degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Washington.

The Monitor

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