Keynote address by Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem at the 4th African Philanthropy Conference

Dear Dr. Ebrima Sall of TrustAfrica, our wonderful host,

Distinguished conveners,

Distinguished guests,

Dear friends,

As salaam aleikum, we meet in Peace.

Peace is the noble purpose of the United Nations, forged nearly 80 years ago after World War ended, and peace is the dearest wish of women this world over — peace in homes and communities, peace in our hearts.

What memorable days! Here at this 4th annual gathering of the continent’s homegrown philanthropy stakeholders. Thank you for inviting me. I love the bravery and the can-do spirit, and the yes we can determination of your sector. I thank TrustAfrica and the Wits Business School and everyone for inviting me. Ebrima Sall – thank you for your leadership, your hard work and your dedication.

And I thank everyone who came as participants. You’re leagues ahead on fashioning far more effective philanthropy — and you’re an inspiration to me.

Policy — why is it important?

I am here to recount the story of a great battle, as old as Methuselah, older. A battle that’s raging right here, right now. Across this magnificent continent and in every part of the world.

As usual, the fight is about power. Power and control. And the age-old question is: who is the owner of the body of a woman? Who controls the life chances of a 10-year-old girl?

In other words, what if every person on the planet – all 8 billion of us, and women and girls in particular – had true control over their own bodies, lives and futures?

We of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, believe that is how the possibilities for individuals and their societies can become infinite.

Bodily autonomy. It is the foundation for gender equality, essential for the prosperous, sustainable future we all want and that everyone deserves.

If you believe in human rights and want to see that better future — defend sexual and reproductive health and rights. Stand up for the full equality of women and adolescent girls.

Imagine a girl standing at a fork in the road. If she is able to stay in school, she’ll be set on a path of lifelong health and well-being.

However, if she is forced to drop out of school, to marry as a child, if she becomes pregnant while still a child herself, what she faces is a cascade of challenges over the course of her life, jeopardizing her health and well-being and that of her children, and ultimately, her society’s prospects for prosperity.

UNFPA knows this girl. In fact, too many to count. Like Aminata, whose dream was to be a nurse. It ended when she became pregnant at 15. She told us: “Having a child at my age was a big mistake. I don’t work. I am a school dropout. My peers are in school while I am at home nursing a baby.”

Stories like Aminata’s are as common as they are tragic – a girl’s life turned upside down due to ignorance about her body and her rights.

Yet we know how to flip this script and ensure that she finds a better path. For vulnerable women and girls in particular, education is a door opener, a life changer.

Better educated women are healthier, marry later and are more likely to plan the number and spacing of their children.

They are more likely to use prenatal care, vaccinate their children and to seek health services when they or their children need care.

They are more likely to participate in the formal labour market and earn higher incomes.

Education also reduces the likelihood of harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation and lowers risk of gender-based violence.

Quality education includes comprehensive sexuality education offered in an age-appropriate, culturally sensitive manner.

The evidence is clear:

When women and adolescent girls have the information and power to govern their own reproductive rights and choices, they can exercise agency in other areas and have better opportunities throughout their lives. They and their societies flourish.Yet there’s a catch – why is it that?

There’s always a catch.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights, and women’s rights more broadly, face relentless, growing pushback across the globe.

And let’s be frank. The opposition is powerful, it’s well-organized and it’s well-financed.

It is active at national, regional and global levels, advancing a strategic agenda aimed at systematically rolling back hard-won rights, especially gains for women, racial and ethnic majorities (not minorities) and the LGBTQI+ community and so many others.

It’s an anti-rights anti-choice movement that would deny the inherent dignity and fundamental rights of precious human beings.

Will philanthropy stand up against such a well-organized, well-funded opposition? I repeat: will philanthropy stand up?

Because we need a philanthropic effort that is just as organized, just as adept, just as combative and unrelenting.The stakes could not be higher – for women and girls and our societies.

Today, 44% – almost half – of women cannot make their own choices about their reproductive health, the use of contraception and whether or not to have sex.

UNFPA research shows that nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, and many end in unsafe abortion – a leading cause of maternal death.

Across Africa today, more than 550 women will die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. A wretched situation that we can and must change.

Most of these deaths of our sisters, daughters and mothers are entirely preventable, and many of those who die are not women, they are girls. Girls so young they might not realize they can even get pregnant. Girls too young to consent to sex; girls married off or abused, or both.

Ignorance is not innocence. Often, it’s deadly. Indeed, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among adolescent girls.

Yet until very recently, the world did not even measure pregnancies among the youngest adolescent girls. They were invisible.

Comprehensive sexuality education is controversial — why? It’s protective for girls and for boys yet challenged in too many parts of Africa. And opposition is growing due to coordinated disinformation campaigns propagated by the same well-organized well-funded global anti-gender anti-rights anti-humanity opposition.

SRHR: a key variable for equity in Africa

Dear friends,

Africa and the world are at a critical juncture. Covid, conflict, climate-related disasters, the relentless pushback on women’s rights – all setting back progress. Things are not going well in the neighborhood.

Conflicts and crises are increasing unintended pregnancies, and they are increasing maternal mortality, as access to contraception and reproductive health services are disrupted and sexual violence soars.

Sadly, Africa is dramatically affected by these trends, including hunger with drought, floods and now Russia’s actions to block Ukrainian grain that’s vital in the African food supply chain.

At UNFPA, our aim is to make sure that life-saving sexual and reproductive services are universally accessible, including in humanitarian settings.

We are working with partners towards three transformative results for women and girls – our ‘three zeros’:

• Zero unmet need for family planning,
• Zero preventable maternal deaths, and
• Zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, including female genital mutilation and child marriage.

And we use quality data to help us zero in on and reach those in greatest need. Our aim always: to leave no one behind.

More investments are urgently needed to reach those three zeros and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for everyone throughout their lives.

Unfortunately, we see a marked decline in funding for the sector. This despite ample evidence of the tremendous social and economic benefits of such investments.

Every additional dollar invested in family planning, for instance, can save governments three dollars in costs for pregnancy-related and newborn care. Over time, that same dollar invested in a total package of reproductive health information and services, including family planning, could yield as much as one hundred and twenty dollars in health and economic benefits by helping girls stay in school and boosting women’s lifetime earnings potential.

Yet, more than 200 million women and adolescent girls still cannot readily access the contraceptives they want.

While we have seen progress in maternal health in recent decades, improvements have been uneven, both within and among countries, and the pace of progress is far too slow.

The effort required to tackle maternal deaths is no mystery: increase access to a range of quality contraceptives of the woman’s choice, improve comprehensive sexuality education for young people to avoid early pregnancy, and invest in midwives so that every woman has access to the high-quality care she needs in pregnancy and during and after childbirth.

UNFPA is working with partners to address the global shortage of almost a million midwives. If we succeed, midwives could help prevent two thirds of maternal and newborn deaths. This is one investment the world cannot afford to miss.

We are also investing in innovative, low-cost solutions, like a new AI-powered ultrasound device that can be used by community health workers to identify early warning signs of pregnancy-related complications.

UNFPA and our academic partners estimate that more than $115 billion US dollars is needed over the next 10 years to end preventable maternal deaths in 120 priority countries, which account for 99% of all maternal deaths. Of this amount, more than $103 billion in new investments are needed.

In imagining a better future for women and girls, another priority has to be ending gender-based violence. Obviously, this, too, is a human rights imperative. Less obvious perhaps is that it’s an economic one as well. The World Bank estimates that the cost of domestic violence surpasses $4 trillion US dollars each year, more than 5% of global GDP.

The role of African philanthropy in supporting SRHR

African philanthropy has an important role to play as a source of financing, know-how and innovation. Foundations are emerging as key development partners, and we see governments keen to encourage philanthropy through enabling legislation.

More and more, foundations are aligning the programmes they support with government priorities, and with the global Sustainable Development Goals.

Foundations and philanthropies have real influence on the international development policy debate, bringing knowledge and expertise from their work with a broad range of stakeholders, including government, the private sector and civil society.

Generosity and informal philanthropy have played a significant role in African societies for centuries. We see this spirit of generosity on full display in times of crisis – Africans coming to the aid of their neighbours during the Covid pandemic, the Ebola crisis, and when famine or drought strikes.

Private donors, including from diaspora communities – Africa’s proud and powerful 6th region – have increased their giving of funding and time, and we see new instruments attracting interest, including impact investments and other vehicles.

The African Philanthropy Network estimates the potential giving pool of wealthy individuals at $2.8 billion per year, and possibly as high as $7 billion. Imagine how fast and far they could move the gender equality needle through targeted investments in health and education, particularly sexual and reproductive health and girls’ education.

UNFPA has a number of strategic partnerships in place with global philanthropies focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights:

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and an anonymous philanthropy provided $50 million US dollars to our UNFPA Supplies Programme in 2021. This funding strengthened health systems to reduce the unmet need for family planning in the wake of a funding gap. As a result, contraceptives provided through the UNFPA Supplies Partnership in 2021 helped to avert 5.4 million unintended pregnancies, 114,000 maternal and child deaths, 1.5 million unsafe abortions, and to reach more than 13 million users of quality modern methods.
• UNFPA worked with the Maternity Foundation to launch a Covid module within their Safe Delivery App, which helped healthcare personnel – particularly midwives – protect themselves, women and newborns from the virus. The app was downloaded nearly 300,000 times and is used in more than 40 countries.
• Fondation Chanel has become an important global strategic partner on gender equality, and we are currently discussing further collaboration on an initiative called the Power of Choice. Working with social movements and women-led organizations in Francophone Africa, the initiative aims to empower women and adolescent girls to exercise their right to bodily autonomy.
• The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) has been a key partner in UNFPA’s sexual and reproductive health and rights programming globally, most recently committing $5 million US dollars through a Development Impact Bond programme to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Kenya.

At UNFPA, we see foundations and philanthropies as key partners for achieving the SDGs and a better future for women and girls in Africa and around the world.

How can you help?

By continuing to advocate for increased attention and support to sexual and reproductive health and rights and for more financial and human resources to strengthen national health systems and supply chains.

Philanthropy can also contribute to critical dimensions beyond the health system, such as women and girls’ access to education, employment, digital technology and economic empowerment opportunities.

Amidst shrinking fiscal space and decreased Official Development Assistance, philanthropic organizations can help stimulate domestic resources towards urgent funding and financing needs for maternal health, family planning and other life-saving services.

In the face of growing opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights, you can speak up against human rights violations.

Now is the time to stand strong and stand together for the rights of all people – of women and girls with disabilities; ethnic and religious minorities; those living in rural areas; those at risk of gender-based violence, child marriage, and female genital mutilation, and of survivors of harm.

It's time to dispel the disinformation and bring evidence forward that promotes dialogue and raises awareness on difficult issues relating to racism, power imbalances, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

It's time for Mother Africa, its dynamic diaspora and people of African descent everywhere to stand united. Racism, discrimination, xenophobia and patriarchal patterns must end now, not tomorrow – immediately.

UNFPA stands for rights and choices. We stand up for full dignity and for LGBTIQ+ people in all their diversity of sexuality, it’s their right. Full equality and accessibility for people living with disabilities. End FGM now, in your lifetime. Stop child marriage. Stop sexually exploiting the girl child now, not 50 years from now.

Stop the medical apartheid that shocked the world during Covid, and pushed Africa to the back of the line. Stop the vaccine inequity that my brother Dr. Tedros at WHO stood up to rectify. End that now. And always demand equality for women—Sustainable Development Goal 5 must be achieved now.

To advance the Afrodescendiente agenda and combat racism and all forms of discrimination, we stand up for the rights of indigenous peoples and provide technical support to the new United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

And certainly the United Nations stands ready to partner with you, philanthropic organizations, to create spaces for dialogue, understanding and true engagement of feminist movements and women- and youth-led organizations. To push back against the pushback and keep moving forward, we need to hear all voices, including those of the most left behind populations – rural women and girls, people living with HIV, sex workers, displaced people and refugees, survivors of gender-based violence, and others.

None of us accomplishes anything solo. I served on the TrustAfrica board along with our exceptional Chair, Sister Coumba Touré. I learned so much from Mme Aïcha Bah Diallo. Other giants like Bishop Malusi and Assefa Bequele. Throughout, from the reception to the operations, accounts and programmes, I stood in awe of that TrustAfrica staff. Willing, imaginative, capable!

Frankly, I stand in awe of my UNFPA colleagues. People who give their all to the cause. I hope you’ve had a chance to chat with Dr Sennen Hounton and Nafy Diop and Sophie Sene Kane. Committed to rights and choices, doing their utmost to make life a whole lot better for the African 10 year-old-girl. Thanks, guys.

Together, I am confident we can unleash growth and opportunity that far exceeds what we could do on our own in private philanthropy, business, the public sector or in the multilateral sphere.

The essential Great Leap Forward? Do all you can to assure that every woman and girl claims her #ⓑodyright. When she can exercise her rights and govern her own body, we can build a future where her choices are respected and protected. That’s the Africa we want — an Africa of rights and choices and gender equality. That’s the secret. That’s what will lead to the peace and prosperity she wants, for herself and her family, for her community, her country and our world.

That’s a battle we can and must win!