30 August 2010 - Dispatch
NEW YORK — When she first addressed her Executive Board nearly a decade ago, Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid highlighted three basic challenges facing UNFPA: ensuring a financially stable Fund, strengthening its institutional capacity, and addressing the social and cultural context of programme development and delivery.
Her final statement to the board today examined progress in those three areas, and went into detail about many other issues.
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30 August 2010 - Statement
Today, in my final statement to the Executive Board I will be as frank as I have always been with you. I will tell you what I perceive to be the successes, shortcomings and challenges that remain for UNFPA in ensuring accountability and driving the ICPD agenda forward.
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27 August 2010 - Dispatch
LEON, Mexico — The idea that governments must invest more in young people been repeated in forums and panels throughout the World Youth Conference this week. But why is this so important? And what specific investments will generate the most traction?
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26 August 2010 - Feature Story
RIOBAMBA, Ecuador — When fifteen-year-old Maria Victoria Urquizo tends to the potato-field in front of her brother’s house in the indigenous community of Guanilchig, she has a stunning view of the majestic, snow-capped Chimborazo—Ecuador’s highest mountain. At 3,500 meters above sea level, the morning air in this Western range of the Andes is crisp.
The sunlight reflects the bright colours of the traditional indigenous textiles Maria wears, but the story she tells is dark.
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26 August 2010 - Dispatch
LEON, Mexico — “Culture cannot change unless you stand up and say something,” said Thabo Sephuma, a 29-year-old South African who has lived in five different countries and encountered discrimination first-hand. “Having access to basic [reproductive health] services is an issue,” he said.
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25 August 2010 - Statement
I have two messages for you today. My first message is that NOW is the time to invest in young people. Now is the time, not sometime in the future. My second message is that NOW is the time to promote dialogue and understanding across cultures and generations, to advance human rights for all people, both young and old.
I say now is the time because young people are not just the future; they are very much the present.
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25 August 2010 - Press Release
UNITED NATIONS, New York—Now is the time to invest in young people and to promote dialogue and understanding across cultures and generations, said Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, who delivered an opening speech at the World Youth Conference on behalf of UNFPA’s Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. Young people are not just the future, but very much the present, she told the conference, which is under way in Léon, Mexico.
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23 August 2010 - Dispatch
LEON, Mexico — The hall was filled with the energy of some 4,000 young people from more than 100 countries, who had gathered to have a say about the future at the World Youth Conference here today. "This energy is unrivalled, as it comes from their belief that the world can be changed, that the future can be better than today; because we know for a fact that young people are powerful agents of change," said Ms. Purnima Mane, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director (Programme) at the opening of the Social Forum segment of the conference.
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