Below the administration of President Donald Trump, the U.S. has axed all federal funding — which beforehand amounted to roughly $70 million a
Below the administration of President Donald Trump, the U.S. has axed all federal funding — which beforehand amounted to roughly $70 million a 12 months — for the UNFPA, exercising the manager department’s means to forestall overseas assist from going to organizations it deems of being concerned in coercive abortions (accusations the UNFPA has steafastly denied).
“We actually lament the posture of the present U.S. administration, which has had a devastating impact on our means to ship [aid], particularly in humanitarian circumstances,” Kanem mentioned in an interview for POLITICO’s Women Rule podcast. “In Yemen, we had 268 hospitals and clinics that have been serving to folks. And that’s shrunk down by 100 due to the lack of the funding and the consequences of the worldwide gag rule.”
Kanem sees many limitations to the UNFPA’s purpose of ending gender-based violence, maternal deaths and unmet household planning: struggle, pure disasters, deeply entrenched cultural concepts about girls and gender, and a dawning embrace of populism and nationalism — and rejection of internationalism — all through a lot of the world.
However, seen from a good increased altitude, the world is in the midst of a “season of pushback, of individuals nearly resenting the truth that girls are going to take management of their very own physique,” Kanem mentioned.
“Ladies have coalesced; girls have marched; girls have spoken out. Actions just like the ‘Me Too’ motion have made it clear that we wish full equality, not simply embroidering across the edges, if you’ll. And I feel, in a means, your success can result in the attraction of counterpoint voices.”
Upfront of Worldwide Ladies’s Day, Kanem joined Anna Palmer to file an episode of POLITICO’s Ladies Rule podcast. What follows are excerpts of their dialog, edited for size and readability. For extra, take heed to the interview on the most recent episode of Women Rule.
Anna Palmer, POLITICO: You’ve been head of UNFPA since 2017, however you’ve actually been…