At the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, leaders from governments and international organizations called for specific actions to address the financial and socioeconomic consequences of COVID-19. UNFPA's Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem called for leaders to urgently support the health, rights and welfare of all.
The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Ms. Diene Keita as Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) effective 29 August 2025. She holds the rank of United Nations Under-Secretary-General. Ms. Keita served briefly as Acting Executive Director and as Deputy Executive Director Programme since August 2020.
UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, stands in solidarity with all those responding to the novel coronavirus: from the medical staff and volunteers bravely tending to the sick, to the bus drivers and care-workers who have been catapulted onto the front line of the response. And we grieve with the growing number of those who have lost loved ones in the greatest global health crisis in a century.
Statement by Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA Executive Director, on ending child marriage.
On this World Health Day, we mark the first International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. Midwives are central to everything we do at UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Their life-saving skills go far beyond delivering babies; midwives educate, empower and enable women to lead healthy lives and to exercise their right to sexual and reproductive health.
Full statement