 |
This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.
Find sources: "Natalia Kanem" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Natalia Kanem
| |
|---|---|
 | |
| 5th Executive Director of United Nations Population Fund | |
| Assumed office 3 October 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Babatunde Osotimehin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-11-08) November 8, 1954 (age 69) |
| Nationality | Panamanian |
| Alma mater | Harvard University Columbia University University of Washington |
| |
Natalia Kanem is a medical doctor who currently serves as the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.[1] In this capacity, she is among the highest-ranking women at the United Nations and the first Latin American to head UNFPA.[2]
Kanem attended Harvard University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in history and science. She became involved in issues relating to women's rights as a Harvard undergraduate when she attended the first UN World Conference on Women in 1975.[3] She went on to earn a medical degree from Columbia University in New York, and a Master in Public Health with specializations in Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine from the University of Washington, Seattle.[4]
Kanem started her career in academia at the Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health. She was Senior Associate at the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago from 2012 to 2013.[5] From 2005 to 2011, she was the founding president of ELMA Philanthropies, a private institution focusing primarily on children and youth in Africa.[6]
Kanem worked as a Ford Foundation officer from 1992 to 2005, where she pioneered work in women's reproductive health and sexuality, in particular through her position as the foundation's representative for West Africa.[7] She then served as Deputy Vice-President for the Ford Foundation' s worldwide peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, and North America.[8]
Before becoming UNFPA Executive Director, Kanem served as the agency's representative in Tanzania from 2014 to 2016. She then went on to become Deputy Executive Director in charge of programmes at UNFPA Headquarters in New York.[9] On 3 October 2017, Kanem was appointed as Executive Director of UNFPA by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.[10] Under her leadership, UNFPA has focused on achieving three results: zero maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices.[11]
