She returns, again and again, to one image: that of a ten -year -old girl – standing on the verge of adolescence, her uncertain future and her rights still in doubt.
“Will she be able to stay in school, finish her studies and make her way around the world?” Dr. Kanem wonders. “Or will she derail by things like children’s marriage, female genital mutilations or abject poverty?”
This seismic question and this girl – not a particular child, but an emblem of millions in the world whose future is in danger – have become the touchstone of the mandate of almost eight years of Dr. Kanem as Executive Director of the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, officially known as United Nations populations (UNFPA).
Since its beginnings, working on fronts in East Africa, to supervise an agency of $ 1.7 billion with operations in more than 150 countries, Dr. Kanem has passed the UNFPA through world quarters, political winds and ideological repression.
Above all, she led a fierce revolution in the lives of millions of women and girls.
This month, she withdrew from her post before the scheduled date. “It is time to transmit the stick,” the 70-year-old told his staff-a workforce of 5,000 people-in a video address earlier this year. “I promised to do everything in my ability to continue to position the UNFPA to continue doing great things.”
UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem (Center), visit 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 objective of the United Nations” first led him to East Africa and Tanzania, where it was struck by the quiet heroism of the field staff. “It is really at the level of the country where we prove our value,” she said UN News.
But the work was not easy. In 2017, when she took the reins of the agency, Dr. Kanem inherited an organization struggling with decreasing visibility, unstable funding and a persistent decline in conservative points of view. However, the UNFPA grew up – not only in the budget, but in stature.
“When I came, the story was:” We are a small organization, besieged, nobody understands what we are doing, “she said. “Now I think it’s clearer.”
This clarity came, in part, from what Dr. Kanem calls “opinion leadership”.
Whether they are difficult false ideas about fertility or to confront sex -based violence activated by technology, it has pushed the UNFPA at the fronts of global discourse. “We exist on a market of ideas,” she said. “And we must tell the truth in a sufficiently convincing way so that we can collect the allies that this movement requires. »»
Under its leadership, the agency formed hundreds of thousands of midwives, distributed billions of contraceptives and widened humanitarian operations to reach women and girls in the most fragile contexts-from Rohingyas camps to Bangladesh bazaar in Ukraine and Cholera of the war.
The presence of UNFPA in crisis areas was not only logistical, but symbolic. In Sudan, Syria and Gaza, a simple tent filled with menstrual stamps, a cover and a bar of soap could serve as a sanctuary. “This represents the respite that a woman needs in times of crisis,” she said. “You know, we call our” dignity kits “kits for this reason.”
The executive director of UNFPA, Natalia Kanem (right), visits Sudan in March 2021.
Move the conversation
Beyond the provision of services, Dr. Kanem raised the role of UNFPA as a leader of opinion in a polarized world. She directed the agency to difficult public conversations – on pregnancy among adolescent girls, climate anxiety, fertility rates and online harassment – with an unshakable insistence on rights.
“The 10-year-old girl exists,” she said. “What her parents and religious leaders and his community think that he is vital for her to be well prepared, so that she knows what to do when she is questioned by coercive practices.”
This leadership has extended to data. Under Dr. Kanem, the UNFPA has invested massively in the support of the National census And Construction dashboards To help legislators shape reproductive health policy with real -time information.
This year Global population Report, the agency’s annual dive in demographic trends, cropped conventional accounts around the so-called “collapse population”-noting that many women and men delay children who do not leave ideology, but because they cannot afford to raise them.
Dr. Kanem praised the altruism of young people who say they choose not to have children for fear of worsening the climate crisis. But that’s not what the data shows.
“The world’s replacement fertility rate does not endanger the planet,” she said. “The facts really say: you can have as many children as you can afford it. »»
A compass based on duties to turbulent times
Dr. Kanem’s mandate coincided with increasing attacks against reproductive rights, the rise of nationalism and the growing skepticism of multilateral institutions. It has faced years of American financing discounts – including under the current administration – even if the demand for services from UNFPA increased.
“The UNFPA has more money than we have ever had,” she noted. “But it will never be enough to stop the flow of need. »»
The resources alone will not guarantee the future of the agency – credibility and persistence are just as vital. “The multilateral system itself is questioned at a time when it is more than ever necessary,” she warned. “We have to prove every day every day. And when we make mistakes, we have to get up and rectify them and find partners who will be allies. ”
One of these partners was the private sector. In 2023, the UNFPA joined technological companies to launch A link on development in Kenya, offering mobile sexual health services to prevent pregnancy in adolescents and new HIV infections among adolescent girls.
Dr. Natalia Kanem, head of the United Nations Population Fund (left), maintains the assistant director of news and the media Mita Hosali.
Change mentalities
The UNFPA has long worked to put an end to harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (MGF) and children’s marriage. Under Dr. Kanem, this work has become as much a question of transition from mentalities as changing laws.
“Yes, absolutely,” she said when asked if the progress was real. “It was very important to see religious leaders and traditional leaders against certain practices … and to work with school systems so that girls themselves understand the risks and can make better decisions concerning their options.”
THE Corona Virus“> The Cavid-19 pandemic,” she admitted, “was a backhand. With closed schools, some communities have increased the number of MGF weddings and ceremonies. But in many countries – including populated Indonesia – UNFPA has seen the practice decrease, partly thanks to young defenders from their own communities.
New generation, next chapter
For the future, Dr. Kanem did not linger in uncertainty. She spoke instead of the possibility. “We have transformed, we have modernized,” she said. “There is just an unlimited possibility for UNFPA. »»
Her own future understands what she calls a “mini-sabbatical”-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,” she said. “It was a work of love.”
His farewell thinking? A last return to the girl at the center of all this.
“When this 10-year-old girl succeeds, everyone succeeds,” she said. “It’s a better world.”
