<p align="left"> <strong>DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania</strong> — More than 300 delegates gathered at the first-ever assembly of <a href="http://www.who.int/pmnch/en/" target="_blanl">The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health</a>.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — The drastic decline in funding for family planning has created victims in the developing parts of the world, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p> <strong>SUVA, Fiji</strong> — To ensure that expectant mothers affected by last week’s earthquake and tsunami can deliver their babies in a safe and clean environment, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has sent emergency reproductive health kits and equipment to the Solomon Islands.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>LILONGWE, Milawi</strong> — The Malawi Government today launched a <em>Road Map</em> to combat maternal and infant death, with the theme, <em>“Maternal Death is Preventable; No More Silence, Act Now!”</em> </p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York/Geneva</strong> — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) are delighted with the appointment of Ms. Purnima Mane as the new Deputy Executive Director (Programme) of UNFPA.</p>

<p align="left" class="bodytext"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — New world population projections for the year 2050 by the United Nations are yet another wake-up call to the urgency of giving couples the means to exercise their human right to freely determine the sizes of their families, said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>BRASILIA, Brazil</strong> — The Brazilian Government, UNFPA, UNIFEM, UNICEF and other partners will launch a pioneering anti-HIV plan today, as part of the International Women's Day commemorations in Brazil.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — Rape in Mauritania, domestic violence in Mexico and Romania, child marriage in Bangladesh, and female genital mutilation/cutting in Kenya are just a few of the abuses visited on women and girls explored in a new United Nations Population Fund report released today in New York.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today warned against the “medicalization” of female genital mutilation/cutting.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — In 2006, 180 countries around the world contributed a total of $360 million to the regular resources of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>HARARE, Zimbabwe</strong> — The European Commission and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, have committed 5.66 million euros to support the behavioural change component of Zimbabwe’s new national strategic plan on HIV and AIDS.</p>

<p align="left"> <strong>UNITED NATIONS, New York</strong> — UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today welcomed the adoption by the world community of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities - the first global human rights treaty to elaborate the rights of disabled persons and to specifically mention the right to sexual and reproductive health.</p>