Imagine living with a condition which forced you to change your wet, soiled clothes every few hours to try to hide your stench. Or which led to your family abandoning you or being shunned by your community.

This is the reality of life for over two million women and girls...

Today is International Women's Day, and the issue of gender-based violence is topic A. Sadly, it has been a newsworthy topic in the global media, as well.

However short the news cycle in this social media age, the world has certainly not forgotten the case of the 23-year-old...

A new law that went into force on January 16 in the Philippines requires the government to meet the unmet need for voluntary family planning information and supplies, especially for the country's poorest people and marginalized groups. The law also requires that age-appropriate sexuality education be taught in...

The ability to decide when to have children, and how many, is seen as one of the most significant social advances of recent decades. However, this quiet but profound revolution has not yet touched all parts of the world equally. Over half a century after modern family planning programmes began...

In every continent and almost every country, our population is growing older. Increasing life expectancy, thanks to improved diets, better sanitation, medical advances and greater prosperity, as well as falling birth rates are altering the age profile of our societies at a remarkable rate. By 2000, for the first time...

My mother, Morenike Osotimehin, was a remarkable woman. A great entrepreneur, and an excellent wife to my father, who was a schoolteacher, she managed her own small business, sourcing fruits, and gave birth to eight children: four boys and four girls.

She was born in 1924, she was strong...

As the father of four daughters and as the Executive Director for UNFPA, a leading UN agency working on maternal health, it warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues.

Sadly, millions of women in...

The United Kingdom government of David Cameron and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced plans for a summit in London in July to raise funds for voluntary family planning so that everyone who wants it has access to the means to exercise this human...

Friday, November 25th, was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the beginning of the days of activism against gender violence. Why does this matter? Consider that worldwide, one in three women has been beaten or abused in some one way or another, most...

Steven Spielberg has an uncanny knack for tapping into the public's fantasies and fears. So the fact that his latest TV blockbuster, Terra Nova, is about an escape from an over-populated and polluted Earth should give us food for thought as we earthlings pass the seven billion mark.

Even...

A few days ago, I took part in the World YWCA's fourth International Women's Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, where people from more than 100 countries gathered to discuss issues facing girls and women. Under the theme "Women creating a safe world" we focused on gender inequality, young women's...

In a few days' time, world leaders and policy makers will convene at the United Nations for a special summit on young people. Given recent developments in many parts of the world, such a meeting is timely.

With world population projected to reach 7 billion this...