• UNFPA

    TOPIC: WOMEN

    US Congress Strikes Back at Trump’s Goals to Curtail Family Planning

    by  • March 25, 2018 • Gender-Based Violence, LGBT, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women • 

    In a rare act of legislative sabotage, the Trump administration’s plan to starve international family planning of funds has been killed for now as committees in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate slipped hundreds of millions of dollars to support reproductive health programs into a 2,232-page, $1.3 trillion US budget...

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    TAKE A LOOK

    With US Funds Gone, UN Population Fund Faces Brutal Choices in Helping Women

    by  • August 27, 2017 • Development, Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Sustainable Development Goals, Take a Look, US Foreign Relations • 

    It will soon be two years since the United Nations adopted a new 15-year development policy encapsulated in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This sprawling, ambitious agenda was designed partly to address the shortcomings of the Millennium Goals, the most disheartening of which for women was the failure to meet promises of improved maternal...

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    NIKKI HALEY WATCH

    ‘I Don’t Go Rogue on the President’: Nikki Haley’s Contradictory Testimony to Congress About the UN

    by  • June 28, 2017 • Nikki Haley Watch, Security Council, Syria, UN Agencies, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    Photo: Nikki Haley and the Egyptian ambassador to the UN, Amr Aboulatta

    Five months into her stint as United States ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley faced two days of often-sharp questioning on June 27 and 28 by influential panels of the United States Congress. They demanded justification for the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding to the United Nations, particularly cuts to the UN...

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    GOINGS-ON

    Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Head Since 2011, Dies Suddenly at 68

    by  • June 5, 2017 • Africa, GOINGS-ON, Health and Population, UN Agencies • 

    The death on June 4 of Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, and a Nigerian, was not only a personal tragedy and a shock to the staff of the fund but also another blow for an agency that had recently lost all its United States financial support. Osotimehin, a...

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    GEOPOLITICS

    The Debate on Trump’s Budget Ignores Serious Global Cuts

    by  • May 29, 2017 • Africa, Gender-Based Violence, Geopolitics, Health and Population, Humanitarian Aid, Peace and Security, UN Peacekeeping, US-UN Relations • 

    When the White House sent its proposed 2018 budget to the United States Congress on May 23, it was apparent that not only would a hawkish, nationalistic focus on military expenditures come at the cost of international aid and support for the United Nations. Worse, the Trump plan would also sideline discussions on global...

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    TOPIC: WOMEN

    The US Tightens Rules on NGOs in Global Health, Hurting Poor Women

    by  • May 16, 2017 • Humanitarian Aid, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women • 

    While trying to make the case that the United States remains committed to global health programs, the Trump administration has issued orders to nongovernmental organizations and others working in women’s health that could cripple some of their international operations by demanding contractual compliance with US anti-abortion policies. The new rules have been written under...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    Trump’s Defunding of the UN Population Fund Will Punish Poor Women

    by  • April 6, 2017 • Africa, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS • 2 Comments

    I met Dr. Solomon Orero in 2008 at a ceremony where he was honored for his heroic work in reproductive health in Kenya by the Feminist Majority Foundation. I was heavily involved, since 2002, in 34 Million Friends of the United Nations Population Fund, which asked for one dollar from 34 million Americans to...

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    TAKE A LOOK

    America’s Financial Support to the UN: What’s at Stake?

    by  • April 4, 2017 • Take a Look, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 1 Comment

    With White House proposals to slash United States assessments and donations to international organizations now in play in the writing of a federal budget for 2018 — as an April 28 deadline approaches — the extent of potential losses to the United Nations is coming into sharp focus. The US, for example, has immediately...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    Advice to António Guterres: A Leaner UN Could Be a Better UN

    by  • March 27, 2017 • Secretary-General, US-UN Relations, WORLDVIEWS • 

    GENEVA — Whether or not he is a fan of Chinese characters, António Guterres will have to discover the double meaning of a crisis as opportunity. United Nations corridors on First Avenue in New York are buzzing with anxiety about the possibility of impending cuts in funding from the United States, with hints from...

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    TAKE A LOOK

    US Republicans Extend Global Gag Rules, and Asia’s E-Trash Piles Up

    by  • February 14, 2017 • Climate and Environment, Health and Population, Take a Look • 

    In this third installment of an occasional series on research and data useful to readers, PassBlue takes a look at financial threats to a United Nations agency focused on family planning and how e-waste in Asia is hurting the regional environment and public health. With the fate of funding for the United Nations Population...

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    How’s He Doing? António Guterres’s First Month as UN Secretary-General

    by  • February 5, 2017 • Migration, Peace and Security, Refugees, Secretary-General, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations • 

    António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general

    Thirty-two days in office as United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres spoke extensively to the media for the first time at UN headquarters, on Feb. 1. Indicative of the chaos gripping many parts of the world as a result of new White House actions, Guterres might be forgiven for waiting a month to address the...

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    WORLDVIEWS

    It’s Time to Rally Grass Roots to Fund the UN Population Fund Again

    by  • January 29, 2017 • UN Agencies, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations, Women, WORLDVIEWS • 1 Comment

    Imagine yourself a pregnant woman in Syria making her way on foot to a refugee camp when suddenly you go into labor. The United Nations Population Fund is there to save you and your baby’s life. That is what UNFPA does. I have seen their work on site in Mali and in Senegal. President...

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    TOPIC: WOMEN

    Trump’s ‘Gag Rule’ Contradicts UN Policy Helping Women in Distress

    by  • January 24, 2017 • Gender-Based Violence, Health and Population, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees, US-UN Relations, Women • 2 Comments

    Just days after a global outpouring of support for a movement demanding protection for the rights of women and other advances promoted by civil society, Donald Trump has fully turned back the clock. On Jan. 23, with a stroke of his presidential pen, he banned all official American aid to any global organization that...

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    In a Single Day, US Congress Castigates Both the UN and Obama Over Israeli Vote

    by  • January 6, 2017 • Health and Population, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, Security Council, UN Agencies • 

    While Washington is caught up in the unfolding drama about the extent and motives of Russian hacking and possible attempted manipulation of the 2016 American presidential election, another story is playing out around threats to “punish” the United Nations. On Jan.5, the United States House of Representatives voted to repudiate the Security Council resolution...

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    The UN’s Support of Midwifery and the Serious Gaps That Remain

    by  • December 21, 2015 • Africa, Health and Population, Sustainable Development Goals, UN Agencies, Women • 

    Midwifery is one of the world’s most ancient vocations, its practitioners playing a prominent role dating back to the Bible. In much of the world, midwives continue to play an important role in maintaining the health of women and newborns. It should come as no surprise, then, that investments in this occupation, according to...

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    Finding True Power for Women and Girls: The UN Goals’ Toughest Task

    by  • October 27, 2015 • Africa, Asia, Education, Sustainable Development Goals, Women • 

    Challenged by the staggering agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to abolish most of the world’s ills within 15 years, research organizations, advocacy groups and objective demographers had begun to do the math well before the goals were adopted globally in September 2015. Success or failure rests on complex equations with interlinked or...

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    TOPIC: INDIA

    Loathed for Being Born a Girl

    by  • September 21, 2015 • India • 

    I am a terrible cook, a life skill I am not proud of missing out on. I routinely shame myself for not posting curated selfies of home-cooked cuisine, but my mother couldn’t be happier about my impediment. When I was a young girl growing up in India, my mother, Shashi Dutt, forbade me from...

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    As the World’s Older Population Increases, Can Cities Handle the Influx?

    by  • July 27, 2015 • Cities, Health and Population, Women • 2 Comments

    A trio of megatrends that could radically change the makeup of cities around the world is about to converge. “You have two very powerful trends,” says John Wilmoth, director of the United Nations Population Division. “There’s aging of population and there’s an urbanization that’s taking place. It’s not only movement to cities, but it’s...

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