Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Nafis Sadik, 2002
| Creator: | Sadik, Nafis | Project: | United Nations intellectual history project (UNIHP).
(see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files (96 kHz, 24 bit) | | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NoteExecutive-Director of UN Population Fund
Scope and ContentsEarly years: Raised in Calcutta; 1946 enters Calcutta Medical College; moved to Dehli, Pakistan; 1947 transfers to Dow Medical College Karachi; intern at Baltimore City Hospitals under Truman's Point IV program; 1951 graduates medical school. Career: Mid-1950's family planning for poor women in Abbotobad, Pakistan; studies public health at Johns Hopkins University through USAID grant; Planning Commission in Pakistan; 1965 Director of Family Planning in the Family Planning Council; 1971 hired at UN Population Fund (UNFPA); 1987 Executive-Director of UNFPA. Themes: population and development studies with NGOs and universities; first studies financed with UN on maternal mortality for World Health Organization (WHO); reduces maternal mortality and illegal abortions through family planning programs; conflict with US government; abortion and forced sterilization policies in China; first woman head of a UN organization; advocate of better organization, less fragmentation, and more transparency in UN; concerns about global, environmental over-consumption and population stabilization; struggle with Vatican over 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo; frames women's health as human rights issue at Cairo Conference; World Bank adjustment policies; gender dynamics in UN culture and research; believes individuals and outside agencies shape UN policy and reform
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2003
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