<p>"Today I will talk about expanding engagement and partnership at the community level in service delivery of sexual and reproductive health programmes by Faith-Based Organizations," UNFPA's Executive Director told an international group of experts gathered in Oslo.</p>

<p>ADDIS ABABA - "We meet as we commemorate the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development. We are gathered here to advance the visionary and holistic ICPD Programme of Action, which recognized the diversity the 179 governments participating in the conference, taking into consideration the diverse cultural values and religious beliefs that are not against human rights," said UNFPA's Executive Director.</p>

<p>"We are here for one reason and one reason only: to accelerate action to improve maternal health and end the needless death and suffering of women," UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told a gathering of high-level officials meeting in Addis Ababa.</p>

<p>This year, as we mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, an unprecedented financial and economic crisis continues to spread around the globe.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS — Fifteen years ago, at the International Conference on Population and Development, 179 governments ignited a spark of change that continues to improve the lives of people, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told the UN General Assembly at the commemoration today.</p>

<p>The demographic challenges facing our world today are unprecedented and demand a policy response, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told a gathering of more than 2,000 leading demographers in Marrakesh, Morocco. </p> <p> </p>

<p>Ten years after the first celebration of the International Day of Older Persons, there are more older people in the world than ever before, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid noted in her statement for the International Day of Older Persons, which is commemorated on October 1.</p>

<p>UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid updated the Executive Board on the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development and other recent progress on issues ranging from maternal health to population and climate change.</p>

<p>UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today reaffirmed its support for comprehensive sexuality education as an essential component of efforts to protect the health and rights of young people.</p>

<p>Non-governmental organizations and UNFPA are united in many ways, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told the NGO Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development in Berlin. "We are joined together by a common cause for health, rights and the future. We are united in our quest for human rights, justice, equality and equity."</p>

<p>It is often said that young people are our future. They are our present, too. It is today, and not tomorrow, that we must invest in young people and include them in solving the great challenges of our times.</p>