Statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin from the Royal Society in London. 26th October 2011

 

Transcript of filmed statement by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin.

 

Our report today, which I'm going to launch today, is entitled "People and Possibilities in a World of 7 Billion".

 

While our world of 7 billion presents a complex picture -- and a tapestry - of trends and paradoxes, there are some essential global trends that we observe.

 

- Educating and empowering girls and women allow them to have fewer children than their mothers and their grandmothers did, and they choose this path whenever and wherever they can.

 

- We must consistently involve boys and men, because in this enterprise they are the critical partners we require for health and development.

In 1994, world leaders from almost 180 countries in the world came together in Cairo at the International Conference on Population and Development , the ICPD, and established a strategy for countries to put health and rights and dignity and well-being at the centre of development. This subsequently became UNFPA's mission and is as critical today as it was in 1994.

 

We need continued support from donors, but I also want to say greater commitment from programme countries.

 

Today there are 215 million women of child-bearing age in the world, most of whom are in developing countries who would like to use family planning if they can get it, but they are not getting it.

 

There are millions of adolescent girls and boys in the developing world who have too little access to sexuality education. They also do not have access to counselling and information about how to prevent pregnancies and protect themselves from HIV.

 

We should tear down economic , legal, social and cultural barriers and put women and men and boys and girls on an equal footing in all spheres of life -- and put people in the centre of development .

 

We should invest in the health and education of the world's 1.8 billion young people and make them entrepreneurs who foster sustainable development .

With planning and right investments in people -- particularly young women and men -- today, we can make and have thriving sustainable cities and communities, productive labour forces that fuel social and economic growth, youth populations that contribute to the well-being of their societies, and communities where the elderly are productive, healthy, economically secure and have dignity.

 

In a world of seven billion let us count on each other!