She returns, again and again, to a single image: that of a ten -year -old girl, stopped on the edge of adolescence, her uncertain future and her rights still in serious doubts.
“Can you stay at school, graduate and make their way around the world?” Dr. Kanem asks. “Or will it be derailed by things such as child marriage, female genital mutilation or abject poverty?”
That seismic question and that girl, not a particular girl, but an emblem of the millions around the world whose future is at risk, have become the touchstone of the almost eight years of the almost eight years of Dr. Kanem as executive director of the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, formally known as the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
Since its first days working on the first line in East Africa to supervise an agency of $ 1.7 billion with operations in more than 150 countries, Dr. Kanem has guided the UNFPA through global changes, winds against and ideological setback.
Above all, he has directed a fierce revolution in the lives of millions of women and girls.
This month, she is renouncing her publication earlier than expected. “It’s time to pass the cane,” the 70 -year -old told her staff, a workforce of 5,000 people, in a video recorded in video earlier this year. “I have committed to do everything in my ability to continue positioning the unfpa to continue doing great things.”
The executive director of UNFPA, Natalia Kanem (center) visits the Mamas market in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Roots and ascent
Born in Panama and trained as a doctor, Dr. Kanem joined UNFPA in 2014 after a career in philanthropy. Her decision to serve “the noble purpose of the United Nations” took it for the first time to East Africa and Tanzania, where she was beaten by the quiet heroism of the field staff. “It really is at the country level where we prove our value,” she said UN news.
But work was not easy. In 2017, when she took the reins of the agency, Dr. Kanem inherited an organization that dealt with diminishing visibility, unstable funds and persistent setback of conservative points. Even so, the UNFPA grew, not only in the budget, but in height.
“When I came, the narrative was: ‘We are a small, besieged organization, nobody understands what we do,” he said. “Now, I think it’s clearer.”
That clarity came, in part, what Dr. Kanem calls “thought leadership.”
Either challenging the erroneous concepts about fertility or confront gender violence enabled by technology, the unfpa pushed the first line of global discourse. “We exist in a ideas market,” he explained. “And we have to tell the truth in a way convincing enough so that we can obtain the allies that this movement requires.”
Under his leadership, the agency trained hundreds of thousands of midwives, distributed billions of contraceptives and extended humanitarian operations to reach women and girls in the most fragile environments, from the Rohingya fields in the Bangladesh Cox Bazar to the War Ukraine war and the cholera-Stickn Haiti.
The presence of UNFPA in crisis areas was not only logistics, but symbolic. In Sudan, Syria and Gaza, a simple tent full of menstrual pads, a blanket and a bar of soap could serve as a sanctuary. “It represents the breath that a woman needs in a time of crisis,” he said. “You know, we call our kits kits ‘dignity kits’ for that reason.”
Executive Director of UNFPA, Natalia Kanem (right), visit to Sudan in March 2021.
Changing the conversation
Beyond the delivery of services, Dr. Kanem raised the role of UNFPA as a thought leader in a polarized world. She directed the agency to difficult public conversations (about teenage pregnancy, climatic anxiety, fertility rates and online harassment, with an unwavering insistence on rights.
“The 10 -year -old girl exists,” he said. “What her parents and their religious leaders and her community think that it is vital for her to be well prepared, so that she knows what to do when she is challenged by coercive practices.”
That leadership extended to the data. Under Dr. Kanem, the UNFPA invested a lot in supporting national censuses and the construction of panels to help legislators shape reproductive health policy with real -time information.
This year State of the world population Report, the annual immersion of the agency in demographic trends, reformulate conventional narratives around the so -called “population collapse”, noting that many women and men delay having children not outside ideology, but because they cannot afford to raise them.
Dr. Kanem praised the altruism of young people who say they choose not having children for fear of worsening the climatic crisis. But that is not what the data shows.
“The world replacement fertility rate is not endangering the planet,” he explained. “The facts really say: you can have as many children as you can.”
A rights -based compass in turbulent times
The mandate of Dr. Kanem coincided with the growing attacks on reproductive rights, the increase in nationalism and the growing skepticism of multilateral institutions. He faced years of American fund cuts, even under the current administration, even when the demand for services of UNFPA arose.
“The UNFPA has more money than we have had,” he said. “But it will never be enough to stop the flow of necessity.”
The resources alone will not ensure the future of the agency: credibility and persistence are equally vital. “The multilateral system itself has been questioned at a time when it is now more than ever,” he warned. “We have to show ourselves every day. And when we make mistakes, we have to get up and rectify them and find partners who are allies.”
One of those partners has been the private sector. In 2023, UNFPA was associated with technology companies to launch an impact link in Kenya, providing sexual health services based on mobile devices to prevent teenage pregnancy and new HIV infections among adolescents.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, head of the United Nations Population Fund (left) speaks with the UN Deputy Director and the media Mita Hosali.
Change the mentality
UNFPA has worked for a long time to end harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. Under Dr. Kanem, that work became both changing mentality and changing laws.
“Yes, absolutely,” he said when asked if the progress was real. “It has been very important to see religious leaders and traditional leaders against certain practices … and work with school systems so that girls themselves understand the risks and can make better decisions about their options.”
The Coronavirus “> Covid-19 Pandemic, admitted, was a setback. With closed schools, some communities increased the number of weddings and FGM ceremonies. But in many countries, including the population of Indonesia, the UNFPA has seen the practice decrease, partly thanks to the defenders of young people who speak within their own communities.
New generation, next chapter
Looking towards the future, Dr. Kanem did not stop in uncertainty. She spoke instead of the possibility. “We have transformed, we have modernized,” he said. “There is only one unlimited possibility for UNFPA.”
Her own future includes what she calls a “mini-abatic”: more time for music, her family and, finally, herself. But she will not remain silent for a long time. “I know that my passion for the problems of women and girls will not go back,” he said. “It has been a love job.”
Your farewell thinking? A last return to the girl in the center of everything.
“When that 10 -year -old girl is successful, everyone succeeds,” he said. “It’s a better world.”
