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The Sunday Forum, April 13, 2008 Empower Women, End Poverty |
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Sunday Forums
Sunday Forum On-Demand:
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Sunday, April 13, 2008, 10–10:50 am Empower Women, End Poverty with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Obaid advocates working locally, with understanding of, and respect for, the mores of religions and cultures. Dialogue, she finds, will reliably yield benefits for whole communities: later onset of sexual activity, fidelity, better health education, and lower rates of death in childbirth and from illegal abortions.
A Saudi citizen and practicing Muslim, Obaid believes that she benefited from education at a Presbyterian boarding school, and from chances to have a say in her own marriage, in her career, and in planning her family. 
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid is the Executive
Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, the world’s
largest multilateral source of population assistance. She is the first
Saudi Arabian to head a United Nations agency. A central focus of Ms.
Obaid’s work has been cooperation with governments to establish programs
to empower women and develop their capacities as citizens with rights
and responsibilities. Throughout her career, Ms. Obaid has emphasized
the importance of development that emerges from the context of each
society, taking into consideration the cultural values and religious
beliefs that shape people and affect their actions. As UNFPA Executive
Director, she has introduced a special focus on culture and religion in
the Fund’s development work, linking universal values of human rights to
values of human worth promoted by all religions and cultures.
(also listed in Cathedral worship service leaflets) For more information, please contact Deryl Davis at (202) 537-6382 or e-mail ddavis@cathedral.org. |
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Dean Lloyd converses with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), about ways to combat poverty
by empowering women. The UNFPA gathers statistics about world
population, and also furthers the causes of women’s reproductive health
and the overall self-determination of women.
The agency works locally with governments, communities,
non-governmental organizations, and faith groups to spread basic
knowledge about health and education for girls and women. Women make up
seventy percent of poor people worldwide; the statistic has remained
stubbornly stable for several decades. Obaid reports, however, that
girls’ education leads to later child-bearing and ultimately to reduced
poverty for those children.
An audience member asks Obaid how the UNFPA addresses any opposition
by religious groups in the countries where it works. ’All you need to do
is provide evidence,“ she answers. ’People see the benefit of spending
the…money they have over two or three children rather than ten
children. There is a health benefit. For example, [in] Egypt, by
lowering maternal mortality…they were able to save $31 per person
in education, health, and hospital services.“ Accurate information, when
provided to government leaders and parliamentarians, leads to changes
that enrich whole nations’ economies.