From Legacy to Lasting Change: Ending Obstetric Fistula by 2030 | Goals Lounge

Goals Lounge, Excellency's colleagues and partners, it is a great pleasure to co host this important conversation with UNFPA member states and partners.
Obstetric fistula is a preventable injury, childbirth injury that many women and girls, especially in Sub Saharan Africa and other developing countries still lack access to essential maternal health services, as well as the dignity and opportunities they deserve.
Ending fistula is both a health imperative as well as a development imperative.
It reflects about our progress across several sustainable development goals from health and gender equality to reducing poverty.
The United Nations Office for Partnerships is committed to supporting this collective effort by bringing partners together, elevating solutions and voices that are often not heard.
Together, let's rally global commitments into meaningful and measurable change.
Let's keep the hope and the promise of the SDGs and help end obstetric fistula by 2030.
It is now my great pleasure to welcome Dianne eta, Executive Director of UNFPA.
The floor is yours.
Excellencies, distinguished guests, dear colleagues, dear friends.
It's a privilege to be here today.
And I'm not here because I am the Executive Director of UNFPA.
I'm here because I represent the Secretary of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Population Award.
So today, we are going to welcome the ARD of this year, and it's about ending fistula.
It's about how to get to 20.
I would like first to say thanks to my colleague Anne Mary Hu and all her team to grant us this peace.
I would like to thank you all Excellencies dear friend, to be here with us.
You know, we do a lot at the UN.
But for me, something that is very important, how to end maternal death.
But worse than maternal death is how to end maternal morbidity, where we are between death and life, the survival part, and what this fistula is about.
We're going to celebrate that.
So I would like to mention here is how much Côte D'ivoire was instrumental for this year.
The Republic of Corte devoir is the one that submitted the candidacy.
And I'm so privileged and proud for that because in my career with UNFPA, I had the privilege to work with Professor Gay.
So being here today is just shying away from one year in the position myself.
It's just like a personal gift to myself.
And, ladies and gentlemen, Today, when I started, they were fistula only in S San Africa.
Today, they are fistula back in Latin America and the Caribbean.
They are fistula back in Asia.
They are fistula back almost everywhere.
Mainly because of child marriage, mainly because of gender based violence.
So let's take this opportunity together to learn more and to continue the advocacy.
Sustainable development goal is about ending all maternal morbidity, not even the maternal death.
The morbidity is the most important thing.
Welcome to this incredible space.
I'm so proud to be here as a UN staff member, and please enjoy yourself.
In your way out, you'll have something to nibble on.
Anyone online, thank you for being with us.
Thank you, Executive Director Ka.
Thank you, Anne Marie, for hosting us here.
This is really a course which is life altering and life changing.
It can change your life and it is changing life of thousands of women to a devastating strategy and indignity for years to come, or it can be life altering when people who do something about it and making those live in dignity and health and prosperity.
We're going to watch now a movie about the journey of a remarkable, remarkable person.
The movie is made by the acclaimed filmmaker Khalil Gay.
The film celebrates the life and the journey of a remarkable person, Professor Gay.
Professor Gay, who once started as a field surgeon, saving lives of many women already there, but then turned his work and his commitment to a life altering journey of continental sustainable network of surgeons who are now all working on that cause.
Just yesterday, we celebrated Professor Gay accepting an award, a UN Population 2026 award, celebrating his achievement in his life.
Please, I welcome you to watch the movie about his journey.
Thank.
In a world where some wounds are invisible, one man has spent nearly four decades making them seen and healed.
Professor Sarin Maggy is not just a surgeon.
He is a lifeline for thousands of women across Africa who have been cast into silence.
I never choose urology.
Urology chose me.
My mentor, Professor Menzer opened my eyes to a field.
I could touch lives in the most profound way.
But it was the women, the woman with fistula who opened my heart.
Obstetric fistua a devastating childbirth injury that leaves women leaking urines and fishes uncontrollably.
In many communities, they are shunned, abandoned, forgotten, but not by him.
Oh.
From the burstling streets of Abidjan to the conflict scarred hospitals of the DRC, from the red Earth of Madagascar, to the Sahalian landscapes of Chad and Burkina Faso, Professor Gay has carried his surgical kit, his knowledge and an unshakable belief that no woman should suffer in silence.
Every country is different.
Every hospital has its challenges, but the women are the same.
They are mothers, they are daughters, sisters.
They are the pillars of the community who deserve dignity.
When I operate, I'm not just repairing a pistola.
I'm destroying a life.
But Professor Gay's mission goes beyond the operating table.
Wherever he goes, he teaches.
He plants seeds.
Young surgeons gather around him, learning techniques that will outlast his presence.
He calls them his seeds of urology.
Training locally is a key component.
In African surgeon trade in Africa for African women, that is dignity.
When I leave a country I want the work to continue without me.
That is sustainability.
Excellent.
Professor Gay taught me not just the technique, but the compassion.
He showed me that every patient is someone's mother, someone's who.
The numbers tell a story, but the voices tell the truth.
The United Nations Population Fund UNFPA has partnered with Professor Gay across multiple campaigns, recognizing his extraordinary contribution to the global campaign to end Vista.
I feel good.
I woke up in good shape.
This morning, I had my breakfast, took a shower.
I have become a new person because I will go back to school and when I finish my studies, I will get married and have children.
Just today after the second operation, I talked to the professor Mg that it was my day of my set exam because it was a fue.
I didn't want to approach it by the vaginal roots.
Usually, I did it by abdominal roots.
He gave me two words.
You say, this, this, and this one.
Go ahead and he went out of the theater.
And I did it today.
I'm really, really, really proud to have done it.
Yeah.
I'm very happy to work with Absa May.
It's a special day for me.
But ask him what matters most and he will point to his trainees, his patients, and the center he built in Yamu from his own home, a clinic named after his mentor, Professor Mensa, serving communities the world forgot.
I never felt like I worked a day in my life.
This is my passion, giving back what I received for free.
Every woman who walks out of that hospital smiling, that is my reward.
Every young surgeon who goes on to heal others, that is my legacy.
Professor Serin Magge surgeon, teacher, humanitarian, a man who looked at one of Africa's most neglected crises and decided not to look away, but to act one teach at a time, one surgeon at a time, one woman at a time.
I One surgeon at a time, one life at a time, one woman at a time counting to thousands.
I don't know how many, but I'm sure many.
Those women, their families, their children, their spouses, they're all thankful for your work.
And this is not only inspiring, it's also very, very touching.
Me as my past life obstetrian gynecologist, myself working in some of those settings where you're working, Professor.
It's a hard work, but it is a very, very rewarding work.
And when you inspire others, that makes it even more visible, sustainable, and impactful.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us today.
We have today in my bag.
Doctor.
We have today a very, very distinguished panel with us to start the conversation, but we also invite you to be in conversation.
It's an interactive space.
It's a space where it's not just statements, but really an exchange, and we would also invite some of you to intervene and provide your remarks at the end of our exchange here.
And first, a man who needs probably no introduction because we already started, but not because we introduced.
It's not because of the award.
Professor, you are known.
You are a celebrity at its best, not only in the medical community, but at the communities of people who are aspiring to make an impact.
Professor Gay, Professor of Urology at Shak António University in Senegal.
You're also a retired colonel.
Of the Senegalese Army and a member of the National Academy of Science and Technics of Senegal and a Global Health Actor and Changemaker, as well as, of course, now, celebrated Laureate of 2026 United Nations Opulation Award.
Welcome again and thank you so much for being with us here.
Thank you.
Our second panelist is doctor Gabriel Diallo, a long friend of UNFPA and also in the community who is making impact president and the Chief Executive Officer of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network.
A leading voice in global advocacy and policy mobilization, and we will hear from you more about your work.
Thank you.
But to start the conversation and set up the tone, I am really honored and privileged to invite His Excellcy the permanent representative of the Republic of Cor Divi, Mr.
Timo Moo.
Your Excellency, the floor is yours to open the Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Moderator.
Madam Executive Director of UNFEA DS Sister Jenna Keita, Madam Director of the United Nations Office for Partnership, Excellency's Distinguished permanent representative.
Ladies and gentlemen, Cotiv wishes to express his gratitude to the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Office for Partnership convening this high level side events.
This forum provides a vital opportunity to exchange views on issues of critical importance to global public health obstetric Vistula on behalf of misses Nina Balata, Minister of Family, women and Children of Kodovo.
Delegation would like to extend the warmest congratulations of the government of Cordoiv to Professor Serene Maga Gay, recipient of the 2026 United Nations Population Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the prevention of treatment of obstetic fistula.
My country is particularly honored to have nominated Professor Serene Miguel Gay, whose remarkable career, scientific excellence, profound humanity, and unwavering dedication to African women deserve our highest praise.
This distinction hos far more than an outstanding medical career.
It celebrates the life's work of a man of conviction.
An exceptional clinician and a visionary builder who has devoted his life to alleviation, suffering, restoring hope, and returning dinity to thousands of women living with obstetric fistula, many of whom have ended pain, social exclusion, and the loss of their dinity.
Through his surgical expertise, his commitment to training generation of physicians, his support to national health systems, and instead the first dedication to serving the most vulnerable populations.
Professor Gay has made a decisive contribution to the progress achieved in the prevention, treatment, and surgical repair of his preventable conditions.
Furthermore, this close cooperation with Kodiva perfectly embodies the values of African solidarity, knowledge sharing, and South South cooperation, to which our states remain deeply committed.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, obstetric fistula remains one of the most devastating consequences of inequal access to emergency obstetric care and quality maternal health services.
Eliminating these conditions requires sustained investment in resilience health systems, the training of healthcare professionals, the economic empowerment of women, the eradication of children and early marriage, and the robust promotion of the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls.
It is this reason that under the leadership of His Excellency, Mr.
Asanwara President of the Republic of Kodova, the government has made significant rides to improve maternal and newborn health, strection emergency obstetric care, and assure equitable access to health services across the country.
These efforts are fully aligned with the implementation of 2030 agenda for sustainable development, the African Union's Agenda 2063, and our shared objective of elimination obstetic fistula once and for all.
In this regard, my delegation wishes to express its profound gratitude to UNFPA.
And the Korea International Cooperation Agency, KIA for their multifested support.
This partnership has enabled the government of Kodova to provide surgical treatment to more than 4,400 women and facilitate the social and reintegration of nearly 2,500 survivor out of the estimated 74,000 women currently affected by obstericveistula nationwide.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
By honoring Professor Serine Gay today, we also pay tribute to all the women who have reclaimed their lives and dignity, prove its dedication, as well as to health care professionals who work often under difficult circumstances to ensure that no one is left behind.
Professor, please accept our heartfelt appreciation.
Your journey is a source of inspiration for the entire African continent.
Your commitment reminds us that medicine is above all, an act of compassion, solidarity, and service to humanity.
Allow me on behalf of the government of the people of Kodiva to reiterate our warmest and most sincere congratulations of this well deserved distinction.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let us follow the example set by Professor Gay by transforming our solidarity into tangible decisive action so that we may finally eliminate obstetic fistula by 2030.
I thank you all for your attention.
Thank you so much, Your Excellency.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I turn now to you again, Professor Gay, and yesterday you said something very remarkable when you were accepting the award.
You said that fistula is not only a barrier to dignity or health, and I'm saying only in quotes, of course.
It is really stopping women from being the shapers and the builders of prosperous, productive society and economies.
We know the fistole is not just accidental trauma or injury of the nerve canal of the tissues.
There is a long journey of inaction which leads to that.
When women experience fistle and then it's left unrepaired, it's not only because something went wrong during the giving life.
It's because long before that, the society around here didn't prepare that moment of giving life to be it in the most healthy way.
And you now, working with so many policymakers, surgeons, politicians also, founders, you with your experience, can you share your perspective? What is it required? What kind of political will in action we need to really make sure that no woman finds herself in that dire situation, that maybe in some years from now, your work is not needed, that maybe it is only accidental 1% left there to deal with, but all other women are giving birth in the most healthy condition.
Please.
Thank you very much.
You said it all my wish is not to be running here and there to repair obstetic fistula in the coming years.
It should definitely be eradicated as it has been in the United States since 1950s in Europe since the 1970s.
There's no more obstetic fistula in the modern world.
And we are witnessing, actually, and hopefully in many countries, a decrease of the new cases of ostetic fistula better health coverage, bad education, and I think better attention to pregnancy and bad attendance during childbirth.
When we started when we launched the beneficiala campaign led by UNFPA and partners in 2003, we focused only on three pillars.
Number one was prevention, then surgical repair and social reintegration.
But I feel something was much more important and hopefully this has been captured recently in the roadmap that was validated last year in May and supported by UNFPA.
In the roadmap, we realized that the community engagement was mandatory and above and aside this community engagement, the political engagement.
The surgeons only cannot do anything.
I cannot go out of the hospital, get the patient, bring them to the theater, and take them back into the community.
So this is, to me, a holistic approach coming from the community and going back to the community.
But the boss, the health system should be tail up as well as woman any woman could access health services and when pregnant, have very good res during pregnancy.
So the political will and the political engagement to me is mandatory if we want to eradicate to eliminate fistula by 2030.
And alongside we need a community engagement because especially in Africa, We have a big problem, cultural belief.
Women are still giving birth at home, not going to the hospitals.
When you go to the Medicare center, you find they have to call it competent people, are you call mature or traditional birth attendants who are no longer needed to that hospitals.
And when they go to the hospital, unfortunately, in many places there are not enough human resources to take care of them and emergency obsttic care is not scale up enough to make sure that people can get C section when needed.
So it's a global approach and the last roadmap that we have validated in 2025 in the UNFPA to me captured anything, but I just want to emphasize the need for community engagement and the political unit engagement.
Building on that, what the doctors and the medical experts and public health workers who we work as UAP with? What can we do more for the better community reintegration, that these women are not marginalized and left the site in some heart outside of the village because of the smell or anything else, but actually getting help they need? I think it's not only a column of medical doctors, it's all humos for help.
To me, I put the nurse in the new life as the fantasy, as you say in the army, they have to be up front.
If you have good midwives and a se number of midwifes everywhere, well trained, well educated, that will completely allow us to reduce maternal mortality and maternal morbidity.
Because when you have one death maternal death, you have 20 complication as morbidity.
Among those complication, the most evident is osttic fista.
Having enough midwives enough nurses having a good health system and training doctors for prevention.
Because if you want to eradicate fly, we should have very efficient prevention strategies, not to have any new case, trained health workers and doctors especially to make sure they can at least repair the history and to clean the backlog and have strategies for social reintegration, especially to provide income generating activities to those women so they can be economically independent back home to go to the hospital without waiting the husband to give them a token to go to the doctor.
Absolutely.
Can't agree more and we heard community engagement, we heard the world mobilization and mobilization of the ecosystem.
With that, I turn to you, doctor Gabriel Diallo, because you know it and you prove it at its best.
You gave birth in a way to the really famous red card campaign just some years ago, where I was witnessing how you build the community and the whole world around it against the gender based violence, against the violence against women in sports specifically in football.
Now, as we just discussed yesterday, you don't even need to do anymore.
It's already living its own life.
Can we build something like that around eradicating fistula? Can we use the best examples and knowledge and ecosystem, including diaspora to mobilize the political will needed, but also community will needed around that and funding needed around that.
To actually stop something which is 100 preventable morbidity.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Before starting, I would like to acknowledge the contribution that the executive director of rna PA, doctor Jenna Keita, has made.
When we started talking about using the convening powers of sports and cultures, doctor Keita invited me to lunch on the fourth floor here.
Those who don't know it is the delegate dining room, and she immediately not only gave her support to the concept of the Red card campaign during the luncheon, but immediately after the luncheon, with your support, Nana, a special assistant to the then deputy executive director, she wrote, to all the country representatives of UNFPA, whose teams were qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup.
In 2019 in France and ask them that as the heads of state are handing in the flags to the national teams, that each team should sign the pledge to make sure that when we launch the Red card campaign that Africa is taking the lead.
I'm very honored to be speaking today very briefly in her presence.
I have three quick points I just wanted to make.
Number one, just very quickly on the Red card campaign, Number two, as it relates to the issue that we're dealing with, and I would like to salute here, Professor Mg Gay.
I had the honor of traveling with him from Dakar Senegal and really imbuing myself on his experience, and then number three on the way forward.
In December 2019, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations received a delegation of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network led by the chair of the board, who's former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.
She said, almost three years after the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we need to really move forward a little bit to accelerate if we're going to have the attainment of the SDGs by 2030.
So we were tasked with trying to see how we can deal with that.
That experience is really what brings us here as well, because when you talk about fistula, I listen very carefully with what Professor Marga Gay has said.
Tremendous effort is being made, but fistula itself is still invisible.
The man and the woman of the street so that we have very, very sound medical reasons, but at the same time, we need to make sure that together in this room it relates to me, to the woman, and the man of the street.
That's why when we had the discussion about 17 sustainable development goals for the man of the street, those are alphabet soup.
Really, people don't understand always what SDGs mean.
How do we make sure that those SDGs are taken into account for the woman and the man of the street? We thought we said, SDG five, but SDG five, as Director of Communications, the Human Development Report said that no country in the world treats its women as well as it does its men.
And within that framework, men are not always violent towards women, but when you do the count of the violence against women, men come as number one.
So how do we make sure that we use the convening powers of sports and cultures in order to move forward? That's how we moved with the campaign to give a red card to all forms of violence and discrimination against men and girls.
Two quick points very quickly.
One, we have 54 million people right now who are following the FIFA World Cup.
In the United States, in Mexico, and in Canada.
The idea is to use the convening power of sports and cultures to say zero tolerance to all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls.
But our work is not just to have advocacy.
Advocacy needs to lead to programs and it needs to lead to resource mobilization.
That's where I'll give you three quick examples.
Right now, for the first time in the history of Africa, the Olympics will be held in Dekalb Syngal never before, have they.
As part of youth Olympics, 34 countries accredited in Senegal are using the red card as part of their missions to see how the red card works in their mission as part of their work to help with the youth Olympics and who better to be a champion for the Youth Olympics than doctor Janna Keita.
Last March, we said to her, you need to come in and be the champion to make sure that you drive this movement.
Here are all the 34 agencies.
Now Gabriel Diallo is no longer there, who are taking the red card campaign into account.
Number two, very quickly, Last May, the Deputy Secretary-General said that an attention needs to be made to deal with the Afro descendant youth in Latin America.
I was invited to come and address 1,000 youth leaders coming from 41 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each one of those youth leaders went back as ambassadors of the red card campaign.
Final point, as I said, we need to make sure that men and boys are our partners in this connection.
So because men can be partners and boys need to grow up, respecting their peers and other adults, respecting adults.
We got the African Union to convene two summits on positive masculinity in DC and in Senegal.
Regarding the fistula situation, I think that it's very clear and that's why in the invitation letter from the executive director, she said, let's take the legacy of fistula and open it up.
It was dealing with the issue of women's health as a human right, as dignity.
And that's why we are here, and I look forward to having the conversation accordingly.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, doctor Diallo.
As you mentioned, the ending violence and all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
I don't think we can disagree or anyone would argue fista is a result of discrimination because fistoa consequence of women being deprived of having access to quality adequate good healthcare, which they all deserve.
It's a human right to have access to good health care, which does include good obstetric and gynecological health care too.
Women who live with fistoa for years and you gave a very touching example of women who lived decades in that life and some of them, I recall would say, why would you do it now when you are near your last decade of life? They would say, I want to meet God clean.
That's the desire and they live with it and they still come to people like you to be fixed as they say it.
This is also ending discrimination and violence against women and affording them with the good rights.
I know we are at the time, but I would like to maybe give a 1 minute, one sentence reflection.
We mentioned so many different actions which can help to shift the narrative.
I know it's hard to prioritize which one, but if you would say the number one priority, we really need to mobilize a whole ecosystem around, what would be that number one priority for you from your perspective, professor? It could be human right.
Would be social justice.
If you take it as an act like that, I think it should be easier.
It's a human rights, it's a social justice.
Why women, our sisters, our wives in the cities don't have oshetic fistula and women in the rural area in the still continue to have ostetic fistula.
You have to take as a human rights for health as you take it as a social justice.
I think it will help everybody understand the need for the engagement of the community and alongside of the political leaders.
Thank you.
Human rights and social justice.
Doctor in Excellency also H would like to add, please.
And one priority, what would you prioritize as a narrative changer? I would say that the United Nations is going through very challenging times financially.
So when we talk about all this, we need to always bear in mind the fact that advocacy needs to soften the ground for resource mobilization.
So that's point number one.
Point number two, frankly, the United Nations has a long way to come in terms of using sports and cultures as partners.
Kofi Annan set up an Office for port for Development and peace, and that office was disbanded.
Number two, we need to really get closer to the world of sports and culture and we have the lack of having the executive director of PA being so sports conscious, time doesn't allow me to get into some details in that sense, so that we need to number two, bring in the world of sports and cultures.
We were during the African Nations Cup peak viewing time is when the two teams are exchanging flags.
During that time, we had the 32nd statement to say that we have zero tolerance towards all forms of violence and discrimination towards women and girls.
Final point is, when we talk about the diaspora, We need to focus because we are not dealing with political issues.
We're dealing with the economic and social area.
We need to really lay emphasis on the diaspora in this country.
The diaspora in this country in the United States is crying to support doctor Jane Keita because she is one of the youngest, one of the most dynamic executive director of the UN has ever seen.
We have the National Council of ***** Women in the United States, 3 million African American women were there.
We have 100 presidents of universities over the past ten years.
We have developed sister city relations between mayors in the United States and mayors in Africa.
Number three, you have the private sector.
The National Alliance for Black Business, which include the National Chamber of Commerce and which includes the organization that Booker T Washington set up in 1,900.
So between those, they can do three things.
They can do H advocacy, they can do communication, and they can do resource mobilization.
For me, working out a roadmap where we have low hanging fruit because there's no time for long academic conversation to just move forward in the coming weeks and all of that wrapped around with a very strong communication strategy.
There we have two organizations we're working with the National Association of Black journalists, 5,000 journalists, and then the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
So how can we have quarterly meetings between senior women journalists and Executive Director of UNFPA? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I asked for one.
You gave us three.
Thank you.
But I think all inspiring words and excellent journalists you want to add also For me, the more important thing is education, education, and education of girls and boys in our country and decentralization of all hospitals in all parts of our countries.
Thank you so much.
Education, absolutely.
If we don't educate that girl before she becomes a woman, her future is not secured.
Thank you so much.
Now I know we have a few participants who also distinguished excellencies and in our audience who would like also to provide some reflection.
First I invite Deputy Permanent Representative of Luxembourg, Her Excellcy Anna Dosted to take the floor from the audience.
Thank you very much.
Ow me first to thank you NFPA and the UN Office for Partnerships for bringing us all together, different stakeholders, bridging those gaps between the stakeholders and having a very good conversation about our common goal here, which is to end obstetric fistula by 2030.
For Luxeburg obstetric fistula is a powerful reminder that maternal health is inseparable from gender equality, human rights, and sustainable development.
Although fistula is almost entirely preventable and treatable, it continues to affect hundreds of thousands of women and girls, particularly those facing poverty, inequality, and as was mentioned before, limited access to quality, maternal health care.
Ending fistula is therefore not only about providing surgical treatment, it is about building resilient health systems that prevent the condition from occurring in the first place through skilled birth attendance, access to emergency obstetric and newborn care, strong referral systems, and universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.
This is why Luxembourg is proud to support U NFPA's maternal and newborn health fund, which strengthens the foundations needed to eliminate fistula and improve maternal and newborn health more broadly.
By investing in health workers, including midwives, as was mentioned by Professor McGi, improving the quality of care and supporting countries to strengthen their health systems, the fund contributes to lasting solutions that advance national development priorities.
At the same time, we must ensure that women who experience fistula are not left behind.
Treatment must go hand in hand with psychosocial support, social reintegration, education, and economic opportunities, enabling survivors to reclaim their dignity and fully participate in their communities, as was also mentioned by the distinguished panelists.
As we work towards 2030, collaboration will be essential.
Governments, United Nations agencies, civil society, health care workers, entire communities and survivors all have a role to play.
By investing in women and girls, we are not only ending fistula, we are advancing gender equality, we are reducing poverty, and we are strengthening societies for future generations.
Luxemburg remains committed to working with all partners to ensure that fistula becomes a condition of the past.
Allow me maybe to end on a question.
I'm not sure if we have time for questions, but because the political engagement was mentioned by the professor, we were wondering what concrete mechanisms can we use to ensure that that political engagement and that political will actually translates into sustained funding on the ground.
Thank you.
Professor, would you like to take the question? Hmm.
Well, I like to.
The question was about how we can ensure that political will actually sustained on the ground, translated and sustained on the ground.
Actually, I think that, you know, politicians are very difficult to navigate.
When it comes to politicians, they just think about next elections.
But when it comes to real leaders, they think about the future generation.
We hope that you can talk to the real leaders who are willing to transform the society, not to politicians who only focus on next elections.
And if you continue the advocacy, I think you have to use the right words and to take it to the right people.
And I think coming from the United Nations system is very easy.
The way like Côte D'ivoire supported my application to become the awarded this.
Senegal could have done that, Mali could have done that, but not all at the same time.
If Cor d'oir did it, it's on behalf of everybody.
We are very lucky to have in the West African subdigion a community called Ekowas economic community in West African states.
And we have another community into that community called WYMu, the West African Economic and Monetary Union in Cor Divi, Senegal, Togo, Burkina, Niger, Guinev Sao, Mali, they share the same community.
So one state is enough to support one application of all of them, and I will thank again, Cor de Voir money resolution at the UN level has been supporting one of those countries.
If you managed to have this go through one of those countries or the community, it will go spread out and we will make sure that every nation and every country will take it as a priority.
It should not be only the one who is leading the country, but it will go down into the community.
That's why I say anything coming from up have to go down and cap up again.
The community engagement is to me much stronger than the political will, but the political engagement is mandatory to bring any transformation because we think about budgeting and everything, and they have the money.
So it's very important to look at it as a holistic approach, bring in the civil society, bring in the governments, the academics, the institutions, the activists, and the community at the lowest level to make sure that everybody will stick on the engagement to make sure that we reach our ultimate goal, that is not to have any new obstetical case by 2030.
But we'll have fist but no longer obstetric because the erogenic are there, and we should take care of that too.
Thank you.
Thank you, professor.
I think even if we managed to stop tomorrow, all obstetric fistula, even with the togenic still being there, there's still hundreds of thousands of women who are living these days with fistula and they still need help and that help needs at all levels.
Yes, real change happens at community level, but with the will of the political funding and the government commitment, this is how it makes it sustainable and gives it longevity, which is so much needed.
With that, Excellent de Fair, Mr.
Dow of Republic of Senegal, I know you also have something important to share with us, please.
Thank you so much, Madam Coordinator.
I will be brief, of course, I have a little speech, but no more than 1 minute.
I swear because we had no opportunity yesterday to congratulate the recipients.
Then we want to take this chance.
Then to start, allow me to take this opportunity to express our sincerest appreciation to UNFPA and the United Nations A World Committee of Honoring B, the Foundation Bon Action Mugaenza chaired by the First Lady of the Republic of Burundi and Professor Serene Maga Gay.
Eminent of Senegal and a leading champion in the global fight to end obstetric fistula.
This recognition is a source of immense pride of our country.
I don't know the rules of UNFPA for the committee, but if maybe we were a member of the board executive, maybe Senegal would have to propose is just what I want to stress.
Congratulations once again, Professor.
Yes.
This recognition is particularly meaningful as the focus of this afternoon discussion is the elimination of obstetrical fistula, a cause to which he has devoted his career while representing our country with distinctions.
This commitment was further strengthened when Senegal had the honor of facilitating on behalf of the African group the negotiation of the biannual resolution entitled, intensifying efforts to end obstetr fistula.
I would like to renew our sensor appreciation to NFPA for its exemplary partnership and state first technical support while we are facilitating these resolutions on behalf of the African group.
Finally, despite the devastating impact that obstetric fistula continues to have on the lives of thousands of women and girls around the world, it is important to remember that this condition is entirely preventable and treatable, ensuring universal access to quality maternal health care and reproductive health services and appropriate social support is not only a public health imperative.
It is a matter of justice, dignity, and fundamental human rights, as the proptor said.
Senegal will remain steadfast in its commitment to this principle and will continue working alongside its partner until no woman or girl suffer from these preventable conditions.
Thank you so much, ma'am.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Chad'ffair.
I can't agree more with all your words.
Again, congratulations to you, Professor, for your amazing incredible work.
Absolutely.
We have time for maybe one question from audience, and I know we have a lot of interested parties here.
Please introduce yourself and I'd ask you a question or is it a comment? Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm Andrés, I'm ambassador of Iceland PR here in New York.
Congratulations, professor on this award.
It's been very interesting to hear from you all and it reminds us of how multi layered and whole of society issue this is fistula issue.
It's a health issue, it's an education issue.
Iceland has been working and targeting finance in this direction for about 15 years with UNFPA and we're very proud to be supporting that.
Um, I was wondering, Professor, maybe you can comment on or others.
Is there anything specific that we can change in our approach or the UN can change in their approach? You talked about this is a long term issue and it's a reminder for us because we also have politicians that are elected for a certain time.
Is there anything long term that donating countries or UN can do to change this approach and work better? Is there outreach to youth that we should do? Just some thoughts.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Professor what they should do.
I don't know what else we can do? What can we do differently to really deepen our reach and maybe reach to different audiences? We as a UN, we as a diplomatic corps, what else we can do and what we can do differently? Thank you.
I think whatever should be done is already there.
We were inclusive enough by drafting the last word map that UNFPA issued during the last World Health Assembly in Geneva to talk to everybody, to politicians, to surgeons, to the patients, and everything is captured properly in the last word map that you can maybe get from the UNFPA website if you want UNFPA, can send it to you.
And setting anything that should be done from the community up to the government.
If each of the stakeholders just focus on what it can do, we will overcome whatever difficulty we have now.
I think that what Ara said earlier, we made a mistake in the beginning, thinking that it was only going in to do the surgeries and talking to we had a lot of strategies, but anything that is not incurred into the community, unfortunately, will not be sustainable because you go in some places, you have nice hospitals, you have midwife, but the community cannot understand why a woman should go to deliver at the hospital.
There are some cultural pecularities to take care of.
So to talk to the pin community is not you as ambassador or me as a surgeon.
We have a community in some part of Senegal with almost no facility because in their culture, no woman can deliver home.
The woman deliver home, they have to burn it.
Since Hakan was rebuilt, so I say, take it to the medical center in some ethnical groups in my country, and even during some crisis like war, they still continue going to deliver at the medical center because of the cultural belief that in a room a woman deliver, it should be completely burned or destroyed.
There are some cultural pecularity we should take care of.
Something very important and that was very dear, I think, to the executive director was the child marriage.
We cannot continue giving young woman to men for any reason.
And I think that waiting until they are mature enough to get married to me is a social rights.
You cannot just continue marrying girls.
I remember one day I was from Germantown going to Sal Philadelphia.
I was for Basch at that time, and I entered the bus and I saw a girl.
She was like big enough to be a young lady with a baby.
And then she sat in the bus with a baby and took the finger in the mouth.
I was about to there was a baby having baby.
And this is almost every in S San Africa.
I think that everything is there in the new roadmap, and I think UNFPA that is coordinating the endfsila campaign will call maybe not regional meetings, we don't need anymore.
Cold all stakeholders around that road map, and then we can find direction to make sure that you can alleviate the burden of the festival by ending the new cases.
No more.
My wish is not to go anymore anywhere to continue.
I have neck problem, it's very difficult to operate.
When you sit there on a chair and operating from 8:00 to 7:00 P.M.
On one case, it's very difficult.
I think that altogether, we can find avenue to definitely contribute to whatever we can to make sure that what is there in the world map can be definitely implemented everywhere for the sake of the women that are really suffering.
We're talking about that lady.
She was 82 and she came to me.
She was carrying the fist lift for 52 years and her son who brought her to the treatment, I was 52 myself.
She had the fever I was born.
And the son was 52, and she came to Tangaa in Benin.
And definitely while misses Edy was the representative of U in Benin, and it was very difficult that lady.
I was thinking like my mom, like my mom could have had a fistula when I was born because the boys were 52 and I was myself 52 at the same time.
I think that we should do everything we can to end fistula for the sake of this woman, to restore company their dignity.
I hope I answered your question.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, professor.
Of course, creating these positive incentives in the communities to really invite women and incentivize them and make it as a culture change, as you say, so that they have skilled birth attendants present in their birth.
Whether it's a hospital sometimes it's not really a hospital.
Maybe it's a health care center in the community, but have a skilled personnel present to detect the problem, assist refer when it's needed.
And if anything happens injury, as you say, ogenic injury can still happen, then you refer them because those cases you described, the longer they are left unattended, it's so hard to repair after the years because the tissues just all go apart and necrotize scarring.
It scarring.
It's really hard and you have to go sometimes with mesh and other solutions, which is really, really complex.
With age, everything can dry with tiny and even entering there has become very difficult.
Yes.
I think that really we should make sure that no more new optic the case by 2030.
With that, we have to close and really transform it to the call to action, which we will hear from our Executive Director DNA Kit, and we can take back our seats and we will have a closing remarks from and the Secretary-General D Kate.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
I think it was I was back into it again.
And I'm an economist and a lawyer.
So when I joined UNF he has no clue what oxetic fistula was, and yet I was a woman, a mother.
Thank you.
I think we are in the UN 80.
We like to make it process.
We like to talk about systems.
Well, let's celebrate the achievement of the UNA as well.
80 year after the creation of this incredible organization, we have been saving lives.
Thanks to our donors.
Thanks to the core contributions, thanks to member state.
This is you're doing all of you.
The only thing that has not been mentioned during all this was, how do we get to the women who are fistula? We didn't approach that here.
That's the only thing that was not mentioned here because that's where we start.
Some, just like that lady 80 years something, the son was there.
She was lucky.
Usually, they are cast out from home.
They are considered as witches sorcerer, you name it.
We do what we call recruitment.
The UNFEA staff with a word that the UN love to use, women led organization, youth led organization.
Let me give the example.
Those people are real people.
They go around villages, they go around bushes to see where they are.
That's the process we call recruitment.
Because to make a military surgeon come all the way, you don't bring someone for someone.
You need to have a group.
For a month we go and some of that one very retiree US ambassador went with me throughout because international NGOs help us as well.
When we have enough group, we call on the surgeons like Professor McGee.
The surgeon, the best ones with respect to every surgeon remain the military ones because they are natural trauma surgeons.
They are not scared to go the last smile in surgery.
That the recruitment part is the more that's where UNFP with the women led youth der.
When we talk about youth peace and security at the Security Council, please, member states, is that is those young women we are mentioning Youth peace and security is about ending the morbidity of young women.
It's not about child marriage.
It's about early pregnancy, whether you're married or not.
Early pregnancy is a disaster.
Women led organization, youth led organization that's among the things they do.
When we put them together in some space, we need to feed them.
We need to keep them.
We need to have their family with them.
That's where your money goes.
Then when that is being done, if it's my phone, someone should turn it off.
Real life experience.
You see, that is a cost.
We have to take care of them, and then the surgeon can come and start doing their job, whatever place that is.
He mentioned Tanga and allow me to say hello to Father Frioli, a priest who spent his time saving women's life.
Even half the blood can come there.
You saw the De Kmber Foundation named after his mother.
In Kinshasa, Dikembe was a famous US basketball slash DRC basketball player.
He devoted part of his life.
His wife should have been with us today.
But he would give the set for us to be able to do those surgery, top notch, high class places.
So that work is bigger than all of us here.
Thanks to donors, thanks to member states.
He mentioned Korea, but I can mention Iceland, I can mention Luxembour I can mention anyone who's giving core money.
Every single country in this room and not in this room, give us core resources.
Whether it is 5,000, whether it is 200 million.
Thank you for that.
Allow me to thank you to end this to see that's what UE is about.
That's what multilateralism about.
You heard the ambassador from Iceland.
You see the question was genuine.
The ambassador for Uruguay didn't say anything, but in a few weeks, we are going to celebrate in Montevideo, and in Uruguay, by the way, population and development, and this is at the very heart of it.
This is at the very heart of it.
I'll finish but what Gibrjlo said, the culture.
We tend to make confusion between culture and cult.
Cult is religion.
Culture is the value that are practiced in communities.
They are two different things, and we tend to mix it.
They are not to be mixed.
You can be a Muslim, watch the way Muslim is practiced in New Zealand or in Australia, totally different from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, or Morocco, or Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan.
Culture values are different from cult values, and that is important in handling maternal mortality, maternal morbidity in everything that we do.
On that, political will is everywhere.
Let's keep on working.
Sengo, thank you for championing the fistula resolution throughout all those years.
There are so many champion in the UN in this building that don't realize that everything you do, any way you do it makes a difference in some woman, some young man's life somewhere.
Midwifery is at the heart of everything.
Thanks for Nordic country for leveling up mid wifery at the PhD level.
So continue doing that.
Thanks to the young men who because of gender based violence that was mentioned, they save their mom's life when they're about to be burned, and then there is fistula that exist as well.
I'm mentioning this because I'm taking your time to come in UN bureaucratic office and prepare speech, which don't say those things.
So when we go and ask for resources, this is where your taxpayer money is going.
This is what every cent is going.
God bless you all.
I'm very emotional about it because people have given their life for this.
Whether they're the Kempe Mutombs, whether they are Fraateo Friolis, whether they are the Gibrel, the My Gate, the ambassador of Cordvar Senegal, ambassador of Iceland, Luxembourg, or you my dear, who invited me to Columbia University, I thank you all, but allow me, Korea, thank you so much, Japan, all of you.
The US may not be funding us today, but let me say here, they have funded for so many years and we are still under their funding.
Me, I don't do politics.
I don't do politics.
I don't criticize member state.
Every member state must put a dime into it.
Israel has funded for me so many midway free in S San Africa.
There are wars.
People have opinions yet.
They have trained so many women midwife around the world.
Thank you to them as well.
All of you, be proud of the work you do because that work is incredible.
My last word, you, yesterday, I took a picture between two military guys.
The one taking care of our security in our building, his name is Tariq.
And with this military guy who is a surgeon, two military men doing totally different things.
But the UN is about that safety and security and safety and security for the life of people.
I thank you.
I'm grateful.
And next time.