The United Nations Population Fund. (Then and Now).

"Thirty years ago, my predecessor U Thant transferred a small trust fund to the new United Nations Development Programme", said Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999. "A small group of donors provided a small amount of money for the new fund's operations. Such were the modest beginnings of what we know today as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- one of the United Nations leading success stories of the last half-century." Today, UNFPA is active in 146 countries.

As one privileged to participate in the success story of UNFPA, which reflects an evolution, not only of the Fund and the United Nations system overall but also an increasing awareness among people, I will briefly detail a few of the most relevant highlights.

In the mid-twentieth century, population issues were shunned as a political hot potato. All the organizations hoped another organization would catch it. Fortunately, leaders such as Sweden's Ulla Lindstrom, a formidable advocate of the United Nations involvement in family planning; Alva Myrdal, former senior official in the United Nations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; the United Kingdom's Lord Caradon; the United States' John D. Rockefeller 3rd; Ambassador Gardener; General Draper and others, fought to bring international attention to population issues.

At that time, the population field was mainly concerned with numbers, such as setting goals and targets. Now we concern ourselves with people such as Fatima.

Fatima's dream was to educate her eight children and give them more opportunities in life than she had. At 38, she had never learned to read and write. She lived with her family in a shack in Umbaddah, Sudan. When she could no longer afford school fees, her children had to drop out of school. Fortunately, Fatima learned of a UNFPA-supported programme that helps women start small businesses. She began buying clothes from the market and reselling them, door to door. Soon Fatima was able to buy two goats and some chickens, and send her eldest daughter, Siham, back to school. Siham earned excellent grades and gained entrance into medical school in Khartoum.

Over time, Fatima was able to send the rest of her children back to school. And that was just the beginning. Through the UNFPA project, Fatima learned about reproductive health issues and family planning. She began practising family planning herself and advocating this for her neighbours. She also shared what she learned about ways to prevent HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and lobbied against the traditional practice of female genital cutting. Now a popular leader in the community, Fatima's success story is the story of one woman learning and growing, holding onto her vision, and never giving up on her dreams.

Fatima never had an education, but still she knew its importance for her children's lives. Because they are in school, they will be more likely to delay marriage, learn to control fertility, be able to get better paying jobs, and avoid sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. Fatima's children will help to lift themselves, their community and their nation out of poverty --thanks to their mother's dreams, supported by the practical programmes of UNFPA.

UNFPA is relatively new to the humanitarian role. We took it up in the mid-1990s because we found that in emergency situations women's special needs, including their need for reproductive health services, were almost completely neglected.

In El Salvador, where earthquakes struck in early 2001 destroying medical facilities and crippling communications, UNFPA rushed to help. The most basic supplies -- even soap -- were unavailable.

Yet, the determined UNFPA team managed to provide assistance geared to meeting the reproductive health needs of people and communities that had lost everything.

Often in these situations, it is the women who struggle most to keep their families together, find missing relatives and care for children and the elderly. Tragically, especially during civil strife, it is also the girls and women who are most vulnerable to abuse. When women are suffering from the effects of shock, childbirth is especially hazardous. The stress of an emergency can bring on early labour, with all its complications.

I am pleased that UNFPA, working with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), was able to develop an appropriate response to meet the most basic needs of women and bring them some safety; decency and dignity.

UNFPA even helps with the laundry! Following the conflict in Kosovo, the Pristina Maternity Hospital staff struggled to provide the 350 women and their 100 infants, with 40 more babies arriving daily, with dean clothing and bedding, using only one old washing machine. Now there are four new machines, dryers and irons-a pragmatic investment of UNFPA designed to preserve the health of mothers and infants.

I am happy to know that our prompt action in such situations is helping to save women's lives, and I hope that in future emergencies, women's health needs will be met as a matter of course.

Another indication of the evolution taking place: at the World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974, there was hardly any mention of women. In 1984, at the International Conference on Population in Mexico City, it took determined action early in the proceedings to insert a few paragraphs on the centrality of women.

Ten years later, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, and its review in 1999, women's issues were central. In Cairo, 179 countries from all parts of the world, representing all cultures and religions, and at all stages of development, not only accepted women's right to self-determination, but agreed on practical steps to make it a reality.

Nor would the consensus achieved at the ICPD have been possible without the committed support of NGOs. During the ICPD, I decided on the spur of the moment to visit the parallel NGO Conference, against the advice of my security officers. Yet, I felt it was essential to go and show my support for the many contributions made by the NGOs. When I walked into their Conference, the entire audience--mainly women-stood up and applauded. It was one of the most moving moments of my career!

Our partnership with national and international NGOs is fundamental to the work of UNEPA. If there has been an evolution over the last 30 years, it is this-partnership with civil society. Working together, we can accomplish so much more.

In the beginning, UNFPA had a modest budget of $2 million. Immediately following the ICPD, UNFPA achieved contributions of over $300 million a year in 1996 and 1997. Since then, they have been declining, but were up moderately to $263 million in 2000 and another slight increase is forecast in 2001.

To achieve full funding requires firm political will, sometimes in the face of strident opposition. Yet, more powerful than any number of loud, nervous objections are the quiet voices of millions of women and men talking to one another.

As we learned from the story of Fatima, women's social, economic and political participation advances human rights and equity, increases investment in health and education, strengthens civil society institutions, promotes economic growth, accelerates the stabilization of world population and reduces pressures on natural resources.

And that is the essence of the success story of UNFPA, which is really the success of the United Nations system overall, and a strong indication of the growing awareness among peoples and countries. As we move into the twenty-first century, I have full confidence that this awareness will continue to grow, that we will continue to evolve, and that our small and beautiful planet will gradually blossom, as a flower in a garden.

Dr. Nafis Sadik was the Executive Director of UNFPA from 1987 to December 2000. She is currently Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General and has been named an Eminent Person for the International Year of Volunteers. Dr. Sadik was also chosen to receive the 2001 United Nations Population Award for an individual.

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