UNFPA and the World Bank Hold Event to Celebrate 20th Anniversary of World Population Day

Spotlights Importance of Investing in Women

RESOURCES

Statement of UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid on June 29, 2009 Remarks by World Bank Managing Director, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on June 29, 2009

WASHINGTON, June 30 – High-ranking leaders of the global drive for universal access to reproductive health care today launched the 20th annual observation of World Population Day, observed on July 11, with a joint call upon governments and donor agencies for greater investment in women.

The World Bank and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund co-hosted a luncheon today with the theme “Responding to the Economic Crisis: Investing in Women is a Smart Choice.” UNFPA executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told today’s luncheon at the World Bank headquarters that women and children in developing countries are bearing the brunt of the current economic meltdown.

“As we celebrate World Population Day, I would like to call for far greater attention to the issue of population, which seems to have fallen off the radar screen. I do not think that any of the crises we are facing today—whether it is the food crisis, the water crisis, the financial crisis or the crisis of climate change, can be managed unless greater attention is paid to population issues, and stronger action is taken to implement the Programme of Action that was adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development,” she said.

“Now more than ever, in these times of global economic crisis, I call on decision-makers to increase resources for reproductive health, including family planning, so we can make greater progress for women and families,” she said. “There is no smarter investment, with such high economic and social returns, than investing in the health and rights of adolescent girls and women.”

World Bank Managing Director Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, "On the eve then of the 20th anniversary of World Population Day, we know what success looks like. So let us mobilize the political will and the additional resources to match and put population and reproductive health back on the development community’s radar." She added, "For the World Bank, this means that we will work even more intensively with our partners to use today as an opportunity for re-dedicating ourselves to the issues of global population."

Joy Phumaphi, vice president for human development at the World Bank and chair of the event, said, “The global economic downturn has taken a wrecking ball to growth and development in poor countries worldwide, and has become a development emergency for women because invariably they're the first to suffer when economic crises strike."

Other speakers included Susanna Moorehead, Exeuctive Director of the World Bank in the United Kingdom, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwaela, World Bank Managing Director and Margaret Pollack, Acting Director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Population in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

World Population Day observations began in 1989 with a declaration by the United Nations General Assembly. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement endorsing this year’s focus on women, noting that cost-cutting from the global financial crisis had affected everyone. “But our work for the women of the world must continue undiminished,” the statement said. “When you empower a woman, you empower a family. When you empower a woman, you change the world.”

Click here to read a join press release from UNFPA and the World Bank on the eve of the 20th anniversary of World Population Day.

View a video of UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid speaking at the World Bank event below:

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