 Good evening everyone, good evening ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, welcome to all of you to the Australian National University and the Crawford School of Public Policy. My name is Stephen Howes and I'm the Director of the Development Policy Centre and I'm your host for tonight and for this eighth Mitchelloration. So let's begin as we always do by acknowledging the first Australians, the traditional learners of the land on which we're meeting and let us all pay our respects to the elders of the Ngunnawal people past and present. We're really delighted to be able to host Dr Natalia Cunham, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund to deliver the eighth Mitchelloration tonight and I'll be introducing her shortly but I will start by asking Professor Mike Crawford, the Provost of the Australian National University, to come up to the podium and to welcome you all on behalf of the ANU. So please welcome Professor Mike Crawford. Thank you and welcome to all, I've got a long list of dignitaries here, too long to read out anyone so I apologize to those who would normally be so acknowledged. I'd like to add my acknowledgement to the traditional owners of the lands on which we meet the Ngunnawal peoples and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging and I would like to add my welcome to ANU Crawford School members, Crawford School of Public Policy this evening for hosting the eighth Mitchelloration. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to a fascinating evening. We're very fortunate tonight to be welcoming Dr Natalia Cunham, Executive Director of the UN FPA, that's the UN Population Fund and United Nations Undersecretary-General. Dr Cunham will speak on the critically important issues of reproductive and sexual rights, not only for achieving gender equity, equality and universal human rights but also for sustainable development in our region and globally. And she's been put to work today meeting with our Foreign Minister with a number of press engagements. I was woken up to hearing her on Radio National this morning so she's already had a long day. She has contributed to the cause of gender equality, particularly in our Asia-Pacific region and that's of prime concern to this Institute and to this college. Our own research is a core concern in this area. Just last week we announced a new collaboration with King's College London to create new opportunities in this space. ANU will host a satellite of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership, which is chaired by our former Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. This satellite institute will allow ANU to increase its research on areas that improve women's opportunities and leadership in the Asia-Pacific region and to contribute to global efforts and debates. Here at the Development Policy Centre at Crawford School, who are our host this evening, there has been substantial research on gender-based violence in Papua New Guinea in collaboration with Femeli PNG and PNG Domestic Violence Crisis Centre. Reproductive choice, freedom from violence, population development are all active areas of research across the University. I know that many colleagues have joined us from other places here tonight to hear the perspectives of our speaker. This is the mitral oration. Unfortunately Harold Mitchell, after whom this series is named, has been unable to meet with us this evening due to another engagement. But on behalf of the University, I would like to acknowledge the support of Harold and his foundation in making this series a reality. Harold is more represented this evening by Stephanie Copas Campbell. In 2012, Harold provided seed funding of 2.5 million to the Development Policy Centre in order to kick-start its program of research and Australian aid to Papua New Guinea and the Asia-Pacific and in its development of global policy. The first mitral oration took place in September that year and the Development Policy Centre's work has gone from strength to strength since then, growing to a team of 18 staff and a number of associates and gaining a reputation for frank and fearless analysis on development in our region and research to support better policymaking. Without the independence of Harold Mitchell's philanthropy and support, this would not have been possible. So I'd like to acknowledge and thank Harold and others like him who support the work of this, our National University. And for those of you who have not met Harold, you should look forward to doing so in the future. He's a wonderful character. He's well-known for certain things. I was lucky enough to have dinner at his apartment a few years ago. He told us there will be a point in the evening when we would know that dinner was over. He came out in his pajamas and with a dog. And we knew that meant that dinner was over. He then presented us all of us who had been at the dinner with a hat and a cobra, which I proudly wear on occasions. So those of you that have never met Harold do come back next year. And we'll see if we can get him here. So before I hand back to Stephen, I'd like to thank you for all your attendance, your interest in this critically important topic. And to welcome and thank Dr. Kanem for speaking to us here this evening. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Dr. Natalia Kanem commenced her role as Executive Director of UNFPA, the UN Population Fund in October 2017. She has more than 30 years of strategic leadership experience in medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She holds a medical degree from Columbia University of New York and a master's degree in public health with specializations in epidemiology and preventative medicine from the University of Washington, Seattle. She is the fifth Executive Director of UNFPA since the fund became operational in 1969. And she'll be delivering, as we said, the 2019 or eighth Mitchell oration. And we created the Mitchell oration series to address the most pressing development issues by the best minds and the most influential practitioners of our time. And I've got to say we're very glad and proud of the lineup we've been able to achieve since we started in 2012. And we're delighted that Dr. Kanem is the latest addition to that lineup. I'm sure you're going to enjoy her speech and not only those in this room, but also those watching on live stream, either live or recorded later on, as many do. So do tweet as you listen. It's hashtag Mitchell oration. It's part of public life these days. Dr. Kanem's topic for tonight is unfinished business, the pursuit of rights and choices for all. Please welcome Dr. Natalia Kanem to the podium. Thank you so much, Professor House, for your very kind introduction. And it is indeed a distinct honor for me to deliver this eighth Mitchell oration. It commemorates Dame Roma Mitchell and her lifelong commitment to human rights and social justice over a varied and very distinguished career as a trailblazer. Professor Calford, Stephanie Copas Campbell, representing the Mitchell Foundation Distinguished Faculty, dear students, colleagues, friends. Good evening. I greet you in peace, which is the noble purpose of the United Nations as outlined in our charter, almost 75 years ago, 74 years ago. And it affirms, quote, faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations, large and small. And it goes on. Today, I'd like to highlight issues that are at the heart of the United Nations mandate, and indeed the work of UNFPA. And I would like to start by explaining the reason for my advocacy. It is a belief that young people make and oftentimes are forced to make decisions in their adolescence as teenagers that will lay the foundation for their adult lives, for their health and well-being, or otherwise. And it also includes the next generations that follow. So in the beautiful tributes to the ancestors and current inhabitors of this land, the understanding about the continuity of life, and the sacredness, in fact, of some of the intimate details that sexual and reproductive health represent is part of the reason for my commitment and why I'm so proud to stand here as the leader of UNFPA. Yes, in turbulent times, but this is when the values that we espouse make a difference. So I imagine a 10-year-old girl, she's standing at a crossroads. This is a prototypic story. Which direction will she go in? If she's able to stay in school, it can set her on a path of health and well-being throughout her life. If, on the other hand, she's forced to marry, she becomes pregnant too soon, she, still a child herself, can face a cascade of challenges over the course of her life that will jeopardize her health, her well-being, and, of course, her family, and ultimately, her nation, her society, and our world are prospects for prosperity. So reaching young people early is critical. The adolescent girl is at the center of our world at UNFPA because course corrections are much more difficult. And I'd just like to tell you a word about a 19-year-old whose story I know all too well. She's an individual. Her name is Hasya. And she has two children at the age of 19, a three-year-old Umu, and a 10-month-old Abdul Aziz. She comes from Niger, which at this moment has the highest fertility rate of seven children per woman on average. Some have more. Some will have fewer. And it also has the world's second highest rate of adolescent pregnancy. The majority of girls in Niger today cannot read or write. And when she was 12, Hasya went to live with her grandmother. She left the village. She started working as a domestic servant to contribute to her grandmother's household. When the time came that her grandmother realized that she was pregnant, she got thrown out of the house. And a few months later, she gave birth to her first. And when she tells you, I was completely ignorant about sex, this is something that as a pediatrician, I have heard time and time again. And the first couple of times, you're like, but then you do understand what compelled her that he was using protection. She trusted his word, became pregnant, and then he left her. So at the point where she enrolled in this program called Illumin, it's like illumination in the local language in Niger, she's now one of 64,000 adolescent girls that UNFPA supports in that country with core support from Australia. So this program helps adolescent girls between the ages of 10 and 19 to learn life skills, to become more independent. It's part of a broader effort to protect girls from child marriage and early pregnancy. And Hesya now is learning literacy. She's also learning about practical things, like managing money and acquiring skills that we hope one day will help her to have a career and to take her place in her community as she earns a living. And she's also learning about nutrition and hygiene, her own body, and things that she can transmit to her son and daughter about relationships. And we are also ensuring that this program transmits information about her rights. Through this program, older women from the community also join in. They accompany the younger girls to the local clinics. And together, they learn more about contraception. And in this particular program, it's provided free of charge. And Hesya decided to use a contraceptive implant so that she can plan her future. And she says over and over how she really hopes her children will succeed and have a good education and many more choices than she has had. Every day, millions of women and girls whose lives have been upended by war, by conflict, by natural disasters are denied their human rights, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights. And last year, and you know this is an increasing problem, you're well aware coming from this particular region, that displacement is on the rise. So we are recording the highest numbers ever through the United Nations. And we actually have the leader of our programming here in the High Commission for Refugees. And we know that whether a woman will live or die during a time of crisis can depend on whether she has access to critical sexual and reproductive health services, such as 24-7 referral systems for emergency obstetric care. Because no woman should die while giving life. And a safe space if she needs to run somewhere, especially to escape violence, which is more prevalent during these times of humanitarian crisis. Last year, UNFPA humanitarian assistance reached nearly 15 million people, mostly women and girls, some men and boys as well, with life-saving sexual and reproductive health services. Partly through the good offices of Australia's strong support for the values that underpin your contributions to humanitarian action around the world. And in fact, the prototype for our work on sexual and reproductive health and violence, gender-based violence and humanitarian crisis, is being developed in concert with Australia. So whatever the cause of the calamity or the crisis, violence against women and girls exacts a tremendous toll. And above all, it is a heinous violation of women and girls' human rights. I won't even bother to talk about the economic costs, which are high. Because fundamentally, it is an abrogation of the human rights of a human being. And so ultimately, we believe that addressing these things requires a holistic approach. It requires a partnership approach. And the person, the woman or girl, has to be at the center. Today, in meeting with NGOs here in Australia, the term localization came up regularly. And this is actually one of the keys we believe to success. The United Nations Charter that I just alluded to recognized well over seven decades ago that human rights are fundamental for peace and for prosperity. And now as we fast forward to 1994, 25 years ago. At that point, UNFPA was 25 years old, we're 50 years old this year. And I'm so delighted to share our birthday with Australia. And in Cairo 25 years ago, I and some of you, I'm sure, were privileged to track that meeting, which was on a conference on population and development known as ICPD. And there, nations joined, embraced, and recognized that through a groundbreaking program of action, sexual and reproductive health and rights as a matter of fundamental foundations for a thriving, just, and sustainable society. These 179 delegates representing all the countries of the world in agreeing to this ICPD program of action said that progress towards development is going to mean gender equality progress. It would mean, this was said 25 years ago, eliminating violence against women and ensuring women's ability to manage their own fertility. Achieving the goals of that program of action is our mandate for UNFPA. And it still continues to guide our path today in over 150 countries where we serve. Our work is actually informing and delivering on that promise of Cairo, reaching out to women and young people, working in concert with others to make choice real for somebody like Hasya, who I described. Choice is about knowing how your own body functions. It's about bodily integrity, having the power and the ability, the means to say no, or to say yes. It's about having the power and the means to make your own decisions about whether, when, with whom, how often, if, to have children. And that power affects other choices in life. It's definitional. It means that care during pregnancy will be there for you through childbirth and that the newborn, everyone receives quality care once you receive a health facility. And ultimately, this is about life and death. So I'm very proud to say that the transformative agenda that UNFPA has fashioned with foreign affairs here in Australia has reached every one of the 896 service delivery points. These are local health centers in the six priority countries supported by DFET. And these would be Fiji, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Salomon Islands, Samoa, and Tonga. This is a huge achievement, especially given the very challenging logistics of the Pacific region. Since the International Conference on Population and Development, we've mobilized. We've seen progress. Hundreds of millions of women have indeed gained the power to exercise their right to contraception and to decision making. Deaths during pregnancy and childbirth fell down almost by half, 44% huge achievement, that we've got to celebrate. I mean, this took a lot of traction. It took a lot of resources. It took a lot of people support. And at the same time, it doesn't stop there. And this is why I've titled my oration Unfinished Business, because I would like to draw your attention as someone who aspires to have a world that the sustainable development goals say we can reach by 2030. I would like to have your attention on what is it that we can do to help to resolve that equation. More women do have the power to manage their fertility, but there are still more than 200 million women, practically all of them in developing countries, who want to prevent a pregnancy, but today don't have access to modern contraceptives. Every day, 820 women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth that are in the main, preventable. So if we were able to reach her, if we were able to provide care, if we were able to know that labor is difficult, and to accompany her, she would not die. And many of the women who die every day, it's 300,000 women a year. These are not women at all. They are children. They are girls. This is part and parcel of why in our three zeros, which is the aims that UNFPA has, that we think unite us in our understanding on sexual and reproductive health, we include sexual and gender-based violence, elimination of child marriage, and things like female genital mutilation, which do not uphold the rights of this girl, and which actually have health consequences that can be life-threatening as well. We know from our data reviews that over 15 million teenage girls worldwide have been forced into sex. And this is often by partners or relatives or acquaintances. Yet only 1 in 100 seeks help, leading us to ask why, right? Violence against women and girls. And I'm talking about wartime, peacetime, wherever you are, rich nation, poor nation, right? It's probably the most widespread human rights violation in the world. And it's ignored and it's swept under the carpet. It's also, I think, one of the clearest manifestations of the pervasive power imbalances and gender imbalances in our societies. And this is part of the reason that it does go unreported. Globally, 20% of girls under the age of 18 already married or in a union. And in the least developed countries, that number doubles. So it's 40% who are ready in a union before the age of 18. And 12, 13, 14, 15-year-olds getting married routinely, 33,000 every single day. Even where child marriage may be against the law, if the law doesn't have teeth, the girl has no choice, custom prevails, and there you have the laws going unenforced. I spoke about female genital mutilation. By the year 2030, it's within our power collectively as a world society to end this practice. It robs girls, millions of them every year, of their ability to exercise their rights and make their own decisions about their own life course. And over 200 women living today have already been subjected to female genital mutilation. We're seeing cultural norms traveling with individuals across borders. So this is a global issue today. And we at UNFPA have noted this practice in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East, where it may be most prevalent. But it's also notable in Europe and in Latin America, and including right here in Australia and New Zealand as people move. And in this Pacific region, there is indeed much to be concerned about. And this was the bulk of my day today, was having the kind of dialogue and discourse. So we prioritize together, be strategic together as we move forward. In this region, as we see fertility rates in six Pacific Island countries and territories, for example, rising, would suggest that we have more to do in terms of improving access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. And teenage pregnancies are a big part of this. Lack of access to family planning for married women is high. It's above 20% in Samoa, in the federated states of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Nauru, the Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. Access, very, very important. And in fact, we see that the rates of contraceptive prevalence across the region have remained static or have even declined over the past years. The latest report, which we did bring copies for those of you who are interested in the timeline, is fascinating, as you see population change from a developing country who lives in a rural area. And she may well be an adolescent. Many are people who've been marginalized or excluded, including Indigenous people or LGBTI communities, or people with disabilities. And here in the Pacific, a lot of our work with Australia has focused on making people with disabilities visible and leaders, which they are in every full sense of the word. We've also worked to support women in emergencies and to address sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender-based violence with women-friendly spaces. And today, we had a discussion about the contributions of Australia in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh and how important it has been to have that kind of international assistance to help people in a time of extreme need. Here in the region, we've also worked together on early marriage. And that's also showing very good progress. So the understandings that you have here in this country have helped India, Nepal, and Bangladesh to also start looking seriously at curtailing child marriage, including through law and policy. And measurement, data, this is all very important in order to know who is being left behind, where they are, and what it is that we see in terms of trends. Australia is supporting new surveys in the region and also beyond. This is part and parcel of the values-based agenda that we share and which is part of the three pillars of the United Nations, namely human rights, peace and security, and of course, development and sustainable development in this era. Now, in this report, you will find a treasure trove of many statistics and vignettes. And also, we celebrate some of the champions of reproductive health over the years. We also show that it is women in the poorest households with little or no access to sexual and reproductive health care, who are far more likely to have unintended pregnancies, their greater risk of death during pregnancy and delivery, and they're far more likely to give birth on their own, unattended. One of the statistics that I find particularly alarming is that in our survey of a group of 51 countries from around the world, it was only a little better than half of married women who reported that they can take their own decision about sexual intercourse with their husband or partner, about whether or not they can use contraception, and whether or not they can even leave the house to access health care. So it was only 60% of women, a little less than that, who said that they could do these things, which are very fundamental to owning your own self and future. So despite our best intentions so far, we have left people behind, and the new energy, and this is why I think young people are so central to the sustainable development agenda, brings us to 2030 so that we decide how can we do better? And partnership has a big role here, and we all have a role to play for UNFPA. What we have seen work is to focus on three zeros, to zero the unmet need for family planning and to make it accessible everywhere, to zero the preventable maternal deaths that occur. And of course, if you're aspiring for zero deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, you're going to avoid so many other things that can happen to the mother and to the newborn during that period. Things like fistula, which again, with the sustained attention of Australia, has been diminishing around the world. But this is really a tragedy when you have rupture of the womb during childbirth. It says that it was a young, probably immature person, and that this rupture was caused by labor. There was no midwife, there was no one to help, there was no caesarean section. And so the consequences of being incontinent at a young age and throughout life is something that can be repaired, but it's costly. And prevention definitely, this is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And our third zero after contraception and preventing maternal deaths, which our alliances with midwives have been very important, is zero gender-based violence. And as mentioned earlier, harmful practices, child marriage and FGM among them are ones that we need to end by 2030. And the foundational element of having good data and evidence UNFPA continues as the population fund to support census and statistical analysis in many, many developing countries. And 2020 is a big year for us as a census year coming up. And we want to persevere with all of this until every woman and girl everywhere is healthy and empowered and has control over her own future. Advancing gender equality and empowering women and young people being at the heart of our work. What do we do about negative cultural, social, any type of policy and legal barriers that are holding girls and marginalized groups back? Well, this has to be done part and parcel with community. We have to understand and be there over the course. So in countries where UNFPA has been there for 25, 30, 45 and even 50 years, the fact is that we are a trusted partner and to be able to discuss some of these very personal things in the privacy that people deserve in the respect that a woman should expect to be part of this. Every day we retrain, we try to equip, we build capacity to be able to do this well. And we need to work in partnership with others on the structural barriers. And here I'm talking about laws, policies, structures that reinforce discrimination that says a girl is not the equal of a boy. So that she can go bring water from the well and you go off to school. And in many countries, many women still need authorization, formal authorization from their spouse or a male family member just to be able to go to a clinic and access contraception. All of this says that as we deal with these intimate areas of life, slow study work in communities is important. But now what we wanna do is to accelerate that and make it rapid and not wait another 50 years for incremental change. So I mentioned the Niger which has high fertility and a government with political will. This is fantastic. There we had the program I mentioned with Hassea and Illameen for young women. But now we also have a husband school movement because men and boys are so important as part of the positive solution. So these husband schools which are being now replicated all over West Africa engage men constructively. Usually it's a midwife or a female authority on the family if you will who leads these schools. It can be under the tree. It can be in the community center and supported by cultural and religious leaders. These schools have improved health outcomes for women and girls because men now for the first time understand a little bit about anatomy and also the importance of protecting girls and their wives from unsafe practices. So remarkable progress in a short space of time. Family planning has also been part of this movement of the husband schools. And slowly we're seeing historic legislation in a number of countries. With the support of UNFP and our partners we're seeing laws passed that are ending violence against women and girls and banning female genital mutilation. Things like marry your rapist statutes. These are being abolished. And so the law is important but translating that law at the community level equally important. Now the last things that I would like to mention are that we live in contentious times and UNFPA does have the courage, the knowledge, the understanding and the support to be able to speak out about things that have been taboo to speak about for too long. We declared an anti-sexual and gender-based violence and welcomed the Me Too movement which says to girls and women in particular but everybody across the board can be victimized by gender-based violence that speaking and not being stigmatized and being trusted to fix deep-seated problems that have been age-old. And this is the era of the sustainable development goals to deal with some of these taboo issues. Now there's still marginalization obviously. There is the fact that for many of the people that we need to reach we remain ignorant and don't have proper data to be able to move forward effectively and that there's huge disparity, inequality, SDG number 11 prevailing. In many parts of the world ethnic minorities are invisible and this is because national statistics systems don't disaggregate information or because indigenous identities may not be recognized similarly for disabilities, et cetera. However while the data on these groups may be limited analysis of available survey data from 16 low and middle income countries demonstrated that indigenous women and adolescent girls were significantly less likely to benefit from services and have worse maternal health outcomes. Population data, it's showing us where these inequalities are for health, for educational attainment, for wealth, for access to resources and the obstacles to universality and to equality. UNFPA is still playing our role in the collection of this data, in decisions about what questions for example to put on a census. These can be very politically sensitive. So again the trust factor and so data for development. This is part of our cry around the world. Now in order for us to have a bit of a conversation I will just end by appealing to my fellow academics because in the past I too was housed in institutions of higher learning which play such a unique role as a platform for debate, for dialogue, for analysis and for the creativity, that ingenuity, the types of discoveries that you will be making here at the Australia National University that will serve your population but also women and girls around the world. So I would like to leave you with my strong call to action to the sustainable development generation. Young people around the world, 1.8 billion strong, have within your power to change the dynamics which some people feel are age old and will never change. Well the world has changed rapidly. You've seen that and hopefully you will share the benefits that you have so that in fact the upliftment of a whole new generation will occur. And our hope is that governments and non-governmental organizations and development institutions will join us just as we came together in Cairo 25 years ago in Nairobi in November, whether physically in Nairobi or on a social media platform, the voices of young people who state their call on your expectations from all of us including the multilateral system is part of making rights and choices a reality. In November, the government of Kenya led by President Kenyatta will declare commitments to occur after the conference because what we wanna know is action, action orientation. Denmark and UNFPA are the other co-sponsors when President Kenyatta, he's already told us makes his commitment against female genital mutilation. This is going to give courage to every girl in every village in that country that she can run and she can say no and she can do so much because her president says that she does not have to undergo age-old ritual for marriage purposes as a girl with no say. He will also, and this was of importance to Australian our deliberations today, speak to mobilizing resources domestically in his country to help pay for contraception. Other heads of state, I believe we expect will make commitments to ensure that menstruation is not a reason for girls to miss one quarter of their education during their school life. And of course, as academics, as researchers, as professionals coming into being as you're choosing what to study and thinking about your all important thesis, we need help to figure out what to do and what to prioritize when it comes especially to that third zero of ending gender-based violence. So what kind of platforms for dialogue are you going to invent to help us to deal decisively with that obvious discrimination against women and girls once and for all? We do need to make sure that the reproductive rights of poor women are protected. This is not normal to be questioning sexual and reproductive health 25 years later as we see now during the universal health coverage debates at the United Nations. We can have very powerful dissenting voices and we all have to work together to be persuasive and to stand in a posture of defending and protecting those fundamental values. It's pointless to talk about peace as an abstract concept when there is no peace in your own home. It's pointless to talk about freedom which is guaranteed by this United Nations charter if you are not free to take some basic decisions about what is going to happen to you. So with our new youth strategy, my body, my life, my world, we aim to teach in an age-appropriate always, age-appropriate way young people about their biology so that understanding is part of the freedom equation. So women and girls understand their rights and can exercise them and so on for inclusion and the fundamental human dignity. When UNFPA distributes kits in humanitarian settings, we've labeled them dignity kits. You know, you order them online, you tailor it for the particular situation, culture, weather. But it is up to we the peoples and all of us to defend and to protect these rights and to ensure that everyone everywhere can live in dignity. I've been saying over and over, we need to keep that handmade tale in the fiction aisle because women are not going back. And it was Dame Roma herself, because we studied up on her. We're so honored to be representing her at this oration. She herself observed, and I'm quoting, there is a need for affirmative action, not to give preference to women over men. She was speaking of employment in this instance, but to ensure that women do not suffer detriment by reason of gender. End quote. So I'm imagining this world coming into being that Cairo presaged 25 years ago where every woman and every person everywhere, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, location, can decide freely whether or when to become pregnant to bear children. Women and girls are not dying from preventable causes during pregnancy and childbirth. You choose freely whom to marry if to marry and where no one is victimized by violence due to their gender and where girls definitely decide to keep their bodies intact. That is the world that Cairo promised. This is the unfinished business that we all need to attend to together. In Nairobi in November at the ICPD plus 25 summit, we aim to do just that by making it clear that political will is part of this equation. It is not merely a health problem. It is not merely a financial problem. But of course we need political will and we need the resources in order to commit to finally and fully implement the program of action that says population is not about numbers, it is about people. And that women and girls are at the center of sustainable development. So I invite you to march with us towards Nairobi. We're together, we will realize this world that has so far only been partially realized. Thank you very much. Well, I think you can tell by that sustained applause just how inspirational and hopeful your speech was. Dr. Callum, so thank you very much indeed. We have got time for a few questions. I'm sure from this very passionate and engaged audience we'll have any number of questions. So I'll ask you to introduce yourself and keep them very short. We might take a few before we go back to our speakers. So please put your hand up. And we've got two mics to go over. And yeah, let's start. Thank you very much for your inspiring talk. I'm Farnaz from Crawford School. I was fascinated by the point you made about engaging religious leaders. And I'm just wondering if you can explain a little bit how it's possible because in some religions marrying in a young age is encouraged. So I think that's so important, I think for us to know. Thank you. Do you have a question? I think by any measure there are way, way too many people on this little planet. I think we need a strategy to address it. And I wonder whether we need to call into question the fundamental human right to reproduce. Thank you for that amazing talk. And there's so many things to discuss. But I look around this room and I do in all the talks I go to always look around the room at the audience. And I do a lot in the race or sector. And when I'm looking around the room there's no women in the room. And all my forms of thought, where are the women, where are the women? I look around though when I'm in these sorts of talks and where are the men? So there's a lot of women here. Men raise your hands. Be counted. Okay, there's a few. But it's, and so I guess my question is you talked about the men's schools but how do we really engage men in this conversation and do you have any tips for us particularly in this part of the world where it can be a bit challenging? So that would be great to hear. Well, thank you. These are such great questions. Regarding religious leadership and also traditional leadership, chieftaincy, they're different type of very important honorific leadership roles throughout the societies where we work in 155 countries. We've found it really important to cross the street and not expect people to come to us. So I think when you talk about localization in Asia Pacific region this is something that we took to heart many years ago and also having a steady presence on the ground has been very helpful. Yet and still, when it comes to sexuality there can be an implication of threat to religious authority or conversations that people prefer to have in their environment of faith which is part of the definition of their life. So we have done both formal and informal alliances with religious communities. For example, UNFPA works with the United Religious Institutions and with the Act Alliance which is based in Geneva. And these are multi-faith groups which deal with sexual and reproductive health as part of their own religious belief. So they're kind of on the progressive, if you will, end of the spectrum but because they do represent numerous different religious denominations they have outreach that is direct where UNFPA may or may not. However, we've also engaged with Islamic scholars for example at Al-Azhar and this year we believe in, you know, always working in concert with others and NGOs like IPPF for example very much fellow travelers of UNFPA and I met with some of the Australian group here today. We gave information advice data that led to Al-Azhar University which is the authority on Islamic religious thought issuing a fatwa a few months ago against child marriage and defining age 18 as the age of marriage. This is a very important rapprochement of religion with really, you know, the life-saving nature of working on sexual and reproductive health and rights. I will also say that the husband school that I mentioned is under the aegis of UNFPA with the chef traditionnel in Niger who are a very important grouping and in fact they received the population prize given by UN member states not by UNFPA a couple of years ago for their advocacy for family planning and also establishment of these husband schools if you will. Moreover, part of the debate on certain issues which have to do with family, with reproduction, with the nature of the family. These come under the purview of religion and we've really done our best to try to present our persuasive arguments to even religions that are not immediately open for the discussion. There have been women religious who really understand the meaning of this in every type of religious community who have also led on this agenda and we continue to have very close relationships with many of them and they will be coming to Nairobi in order to advocate and also to state their views on how religion is compatible with doing things that help to preserve the lives of women and girls, delay marriage, delay pregnancy. And this also I think looks at the person as a whole as opposed to somebody who we want to do something that I think is good for you. I'm a doctor, I'm a professor, whatever. Religion is so important in people's lives and if an expression of faith affirms life which typically every religion does, we seek that common ground and it does take a lot of dialogue in order to sometimes reach the conclusions like I'll ask how it decided to do over the summer. Now, the question of the population itself on the planet and also fundamental human rights for refugees was raised. UNFPA speaking now for our agency believes in every couple, every individual, every person having the right to decide how many children they would like to have and we will support them. We don't want this person to die while giving birth. In terms of population numbers, as you look at the timeline which we have on the first 10 pages or so of our report, it's very interesting because we're showing like 50 years on 10 pages or so and you'll see how population has in fact surged during this couple of centuries, the last and the one where we are now. What I stress most avidly is that is that if we deny 200 million women who are asking for contraception, the ability to limit their fertility, it then leads to their human rights not being fulfilled. And in fact, it also leads to more people on the planet if that's the paradigm that you're looking at than they would have wished. I don't believe that it's ever too much to stress that for countries that have high fertility, and I mentioned Niger, which is among the highest in the world, when we think about climate which is so important as we look at this region in particular, the carbon footprint of someone who has no car, has no ability to have energy, they're still in darkness at night, et cetera, et cetera, shrinks to negligible amounts compared to what I would be doing during the course of my day. So there is not exactly a direct linear relationship between how many people and things like climate change or productivity in the agricultural sector, et cetera, et cetera, but our strong plea is that investing in the people that we have has a natural progression because women typically limit, this has been true for every developing country that became a developed country. Women choose to have fewer children as they invest more in those children that they already have. So we make a very deliberate argument that we should not try to force people or coerce people to do anything that they would not wish to do, but certainly there is a natural progression from being educated and deciding that you're going to invest in your family in a different way than when you're desperate, you have no contraception to begin with, and so many of your children may die that you see it as protective. So ultimately we have tried to counter this regulation of women in the sense of have more children because in some countries now, we're seeing that if you're in Portugal or Japan right now, you're under replacement rate in terms of two children, 2.1 per woman. So countries are struggling with policies where they wish to have higher birth rates in their country. And again, without childcare and certain things in place that are going to make it attractive for a woman to have two, three, four children, I would predict based on the wealth of data that we've accumulated over the years that it is not going to work. The fundamental rights of everyone do need to be upheld and the refugee population definitely is among the most desperate in the world. The regulation of this type of activity has been the subject of recent compacts on refugees and on migration. And my colleague who leads the UN work is here with me. Louise, I think she's still here. Here she is. And we'd be happy to say more about that, but it's a very important point. And lastly, where are the men? Men are really interested in this dynamic. That's what I'm finding. And I think for young men in particular, the invitation to this discussion is really very, very important. And as you've said, we need to think of creative ways of fashioning that discussion. I was told by my team since I came down here that rugby is gonna be one avenue that we're using to talk about sexual and reproductive health issues with young men across the Pacific. And in Nairobi, we plan to have... You know, I think for young men who are really trying to do their best, and that's obviously the majority, they can feel counter-stigmatized. So we wanna make sure that there's openness in relationships, and this is the partner of the young woman after all. So in our Nairobi discussions, as part of our look at demographic diversity and ending sexual and gender-based violence, we will be sponsoring a series of dialogues, which include male-female relationships, if you will, that young people themselves are going to lead. So I'm looking forward to learning myself about some of these dilemmas. I will say that research is telling us that fathers are very instrumental in the self-esteem, the confidence of a young girl as she grows up. So UNFPA also works very hard to teach about parenting, and midwives actually do a wonderful job with this. There are many fathers who are in fact involved. And, you know, across the spectrum, we have now a why I march Twitter Fest going on on the road to Nairobi, and it's interesting for me that even very young men say, you know, I'm marching for my sister. I want her to have equal opportunity, or my daughter, or my granddaughter. So I think we need to find effective ways, and policymakers and sports figures are still very much male-oriented. Today I was told Australia achieved 50-50 parity in gender in your Senate. So I'd like to applaud you for that. Someone was inducted to that purpose. But, you know, it's an important piece of this ongoing dialogue. Okay, we are running out of time, so we'll take one more round of... Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Dr. Kanem. That was a fascinating talk. I wanted to touch a bit more on what you said was a contentious context in your speech. I wondered how some of the debates around reproductive choice and other sexual health issues are playing out on the international stage and how that affects UNFPA's work and funding. It would be interesting to hear your perspective on that. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Kanem. My question is a little bit similar to Ashley's. We used to work together on the same page. I was glad that you mentioned in your talk a couple of points about issues of... Not just developing countries, but also developed countries. And I guess my question has to do with how UNFPA engages with developed countries, some of which I'm thinking the US, maternal mortality, have some of the same issues that developing countries are facing. Claire Holberton, my question has to do with the use of technology, because I know of apps in Australia, say, designed for women with disability that will help them report abuse. And I also see a lot of violence, and particularly I was thinking with porn that people are accessing through apps and things like contraceptive apps available. So how is technology impacting on the work you do? Such a great question. Well, thank you. And I'd love to engage more with everyone on these, but I'll try to have brevity as the better part of valor. It is a time of contention. And Ashley, I should thank you for helping to organize the oration. It's really been spectacular being here on this campus. I'll give an example of how this played out on the world stage in July when the Secretary General, Special Representative on Sexual Violence and Conflict, brought a resolution. Germany was chair of the Security Council during that month, trying to advocate for services for people who have been damaged by the amount of sexual violence, beyond rape, like really horrible things that can happen. Denis Mukwege, the wonderful doctor from Congo, came to explain the types of wounds that he's seeing and his concerns about how are you gonna repair the physical wound that's one thing? But as people have said to me, a Rohingya woman, it's kind of seared into a loafer. Conscious is the wound that you don't see. This is the one that concerns me, and it's bound up with justice. And so Nadia Murad, again courageous Yazidi activist, was there. In the end, just to cut it short, the paragraph that was struck from the resolution was the one that would guarantee services for people who have been raped during war and conflict. And the three member states that dissented were USA, China, and Russia, who don't often necessarily get together in other types of discussions. So I think there's a lot for us to ponder. Australia does use your good influences to try to uphold gender equality, and this is one of the areas that UNFPA has really, really appreciated. What I said earlier about the position of the family is part of that debate. To me, not necessarily appropriate, because in order to protect the family, you have to look after that really adolescent before she then becomes pregnant, and then has her antenatal care, and on so through, very protective into her old age. Earlier I said it's the biggest cohort of young people in the world. We're also the biggest cohort of 60 pluses in the world today. So the best way to be a strong older person is to have had that nutrition, have had that caring relationship, and whatever, whatever, throughout your entire life. So what we've been doing in terms of pushing back against the pushback, and that's our secretary general's term, and we've had very clear signals from him that the support for sexual and reproductive health and rights is the whole UN, not just one agency. UN Women works on this, UNICEF, UNESCO, we're all in this together. So ultimately I think in the judgment of member states, the money talks, and so we were so disappointed when USA pulled all funding from UNFPA. This has also affected NGOs, such as Marie Stopes, for example, with whom I also met earlier today. So we continue to try to put the evidence of what we are doing in front of all governments, I think as an agency that must work with member states and powerful member states, we want to make clear our position, and we feel it is very much in keeping with our board mandates, as well as with the Sustainable Development Goals aims. It is a puzzle why the term gender should be under contention 25 years after we thought we checked that box in Cairo, but it shows you that every generation has to reshape this dialogue, and incrementally we have made good steps, but right now the universal health coverage debate has really been stalled for almost a week now. They're back in silence procedure, trying to refine language that basically, again, boils down to sexual and reproductive health, no matter sexual and reproductive rights. So the funding that we have received from Australia recently to help women in Yemen has really helped us to deliver in situations of utter desperation, Ditto, Iraq, and other places. So we're very grateful for the sustained and steadfast support of the member states who truly have been a sustenance. Now for the developed countries, our full attention is on the developing world, but of course human rights are universal. And so from the perspective of, how we spend our time in actions, that's typically exclusively for the benefit of LDCs and middle income countries. I'm in trouble with middle income countries right now because part of my aim, especially when you come in new and you think, oh my gosh, what can I do to streamline things? Graduating middle income countries and saying congratulations, you now have an economy, bye bye, we no longer have to do with services, no. So I've had lectures from member states about disparity and inequality and the average disguises and on and on. So this is something where again, I think advice from Australia as we did our strategic plan was very useful. Ultimately, I think the need for developed countries to also understand their fair share is part of the discussion. And again, this is why we continue to knock on doors even when they've been slammed to say, look, it's a world community here and every little bit makes a difference. Now Claire, our practitioner, somebody who's actually helping people with your hands. Yes, technology and innovation is a big push for UNFPA and the things you mentioned. We've also expressed ethical concerns over potential abuse of the same reproductive technology that we're excited about. If you're an infertile woman or man, this is really, really a boon to be able to have things like intravillus fertilization, et cetera. But we also must safeguard women who should not be coerced into being surrogate mothers for profit, usually not theirs. And in such instances, we've spoken out against this. We're also monitoring with WHO the handling of the actual genome itself. I think this is a ripe place for all of us to consider, ponder and have worries and to translate that into joint action and the research community has been very forthcoming on this and earlier, we were in a discussion about sex, selection, bias, boy preference and how we are actually seeing the social consequences of this in quite disturbing ways in places where boy preference has been expressed. So we've opened an office recently to serve discussions on demographic diversity, but in particular, aging and low fertility and sex, election, bias is part of that discussion as well. Look, I just wanna congratulate you. I've had a chance to read up on your university before coming today and certainly the Mitchell oration itself. I think it's a wonderful way to cohere a community and also to transfer that legacy that Dame represents. And so ultimately, for me and for UNFPA, it's been a real privilege to engage with you and I look forward to continuing the dialogue whether online or in person anytime. You are in a country where we work, we're inviting you to please come and visit and see what we're doing. Thank you so much and thank you. Well, I'm sure we could continue the discussion for a long time, but I'm afraid we do have to finish. I'm sure you'll all wanna go and read this report which has no doubt up on the web. Thank you all for coming. I also wanna thank the Ashley and Ari and Hannah who've organized tonight's event. But finally I wanna close with a vote of thanks to Dr. Cannon. I think you've given us a talk, a lecture, an oration that was informative, stimulating, challenging, but I think above all, uplifting. So thank you very much. Good night, everyone. Thank you.