UNFPA chief to step down months before term ends

The head of the United Nations’ chief sexual and reproductive health agency told her staff she planned to step down on July 15, months before her term was scheduled to end in early October. Dr. Natalia Kanem, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, UNFPA, informed U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the agency’s executive board president of her plans to step down this summer. “It’s time to pass on the baton,” she said in a videotaped address to staff, obtained by Devex. “It’s … obviously a poignant moment and year for me personally. I have pledged to do everything in my capacity to keep positioning UNFPA to continue to do great things, and I will need your help to assure that we will have a smooth transition.” Kanem, a Panamanian medical doctor educated in the United States, has led the U.N. agency since October 2017, serving two four-year terms. Her departure comes at a period of intense turmoil and uncertainty at the U.N., facing unprecedented cuts in U.S. funding. The U.S. cuts have disrupted UNFPA’s reproductive health programs and anti-violence campaigns against women in dozens of countries, including some of the most poverty-wracked and conflict-ridden nations. In February, the Trump Administration terminated all of its 48 grants to UNFPA, valued at $377 million, to “provide critical maternal health care, protection from violence, rape treatment and other life-saving care in over 25 crisis-strick countries and territories,” including Afghanistan, Gaza, Haiti, Sudan, and Ukraine. The Trump administration subsequently granted exceptions to seven USAID projects in countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, and Ukraine, for a total value of $89 million. But shortly after, the U.S. once again canceled over $40 million in programs for Afghanistan and Syria, leaving $330 million in U.S. funding for projects still halted, according to figures provided by UNFPA. “The roller coaster continues,” said one U.N. official. But Kanem sought to highlight the positive. “We have good leadership that we can be confident will help us ride out any rough seas, keep that ship afloat, and more than anything, to keep moving forward,” she said. “When you have times of uncertainty, as we have in the funding situation, it's very important also to emphasize who it is that we benefit with our work.”