Sunday, April 13, 2008. 10 AM
Empower Women, End Poverty
The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host
Dean Lloyd converses with Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), about ways to combat poverty by empowering women. The UNFPA gathers statistics about world population, and also furthers the causes of women’s reproductive health and the overall self-determination of women.
The agency works locally with governments, communities, non-governmental organizations, and faith groups to spread basic knowledge about health and education for girls and women. Women make up seventy percent of poor people worldwide; the statistic has remained stubbornly stable for several decades. Obaid reports, however, that girls’ education leads to later child-bearing and ultimately to reduced poverty for those children.
Obaid advocates working locally, with understanding of, and respect for, the mores of religions and cultures. Dialogue, she finds, will reliably yield benefits for whole communities: later onset of sexual activity, fidelity, better health education, and lower rates of death in childbirth and from illegal abortions.
An audience member asks Obaid how the UNFPA addresses any opposition by religious groups in the countries where it works. ’All you need to do is provide evidence,“ she answers. ’People see the benefit of spending the…money they have over two or three children rather than ten children. There is a health benefit. For example, [in] Egypt, by lowering maternal mortality…they were able to save $31 per person in education, health, and hospital services.“ Accurate information, when provided to government leaders and parliamentarians, leads to changes that enrich whole nations’ economies.
A Saudi citizen and practicing Muslim, Obaid believes that she benefited from education at a Presbyterian boarding school, and from chances to have a say in her own marriage, in her career, and in planning her family.
About Thoraya Ahmed Obaid
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid is executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The UNFPA gathers statistics about world population, and also furthers the causes of women’s reproductive health and the overall self-determination of women. Obaid is a Saudi citizen and practicing Muslim.