Statement by Ms. Diene Keita, Executive Director, UNFPA at the Second Regular Session of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS

Mr. President,

Distinguished Members of the Executive Board,

Chers collègues, chers amis,

I am pleased to join you for this Second Regular Session of the Executive Board for 2026. Your guidance, scrutiny and support make UNFPA's work in more than 150 countries possible, and I am deeply grateful for your partnership.

Before moving forward, allow me one personal reflection.

Almost exactly one year ago, this Executive Board endorsed my appointment as Executive Director of UNFPA. I remain profoundly grateful to Member States and to the Secretary-General for the confidence placed in me.

I also remember with particular appreciation the words of the then-President of the Executive Board, the distinguished representative of Ecuador, who, reflecting the strength of support he had heard across the membership, said that he felt able to extend that endorsement on behalf of the General Assembly as a whole.

I received those words with humility then. I remember them with the same humility today - and with an even deeper sense of the responsibility that such confidence carries.

This first year entrusted with the leadership of UNFPA has taken me from communities confronting crisis to capitals navigating profound demographic change. It has confirmed something I have believed throughout my life in public service: multilateralism must be felt, not merely discussed. People do not experience the United Nations through our organigrams or resolutions. They experience it through results - through the midwife who arrives in time, the dignity of a survivor who receives care, the census that makes an invisible community visible, and the opportunity a young person has to shape their own future.

It has also made me more convinced than ever that institutions must be prepared to change - but the promises we have made to people must not.

In just a few weeks, world leaders will gather for the eighty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly. Delivering on the Charter's promise to "We the peoples" - a promise of peace, dignity, prosperity and progress - requires Member States and the United Nations system to work together with urgency and purpose.

It all begins with people.

Every person deserves a life of dignity, safety and opportunity. When people can exercise their rights and realize their potential, communities grow stronger, economies become more dynamic and countries become more resilient.

This is the vision of the ICPD Programme of Action. It guides everything we do at UNFPA. Turning that vision into reality depends on the choices and investments we make now.

We face an increasingly complex world. Conflict and humanitarian crises are putting millions at risk. Health systems are under strain. Climate change is reshaping communities. Artificial intelligence and other technologies are advancing faster than our ability to govern them. Inequality is deepening, financing is contracting, and trust in institutions is eroding.

At the same time, countries are navigating profound demographic change - from youthful and growing populations to low fertility and ageing, alongside migration and urbanization.

Demography is not destiny. Policy is.

UNFPA helps countries respond to these realities by connecting sexual and reproductive health and rights, population dynamics and sustainable development. We champion reproductive rights and choices. We deliver lifesaving supplies and services where they are needed most. And we equip governments with the data and demographic intelligence they need to anticipate change, invest wisely and build resilient societies.

What does this mean for people?

It means a pregnant woman in a remote community giving birth safely with the support of a skilled midwife. A girl staying in school and avoiding adolescent pregnancy. A young person with the information and services to shape their future. A survivor of violence receiving safety, support and dignity. A family able to decide freely the timing and spacing of their children.

It also means helping countries conduct censuses and turn demographic data into action - to map vulnerability, target investments, strengthen resilience and ensure that every person counts.

THE WORLD WE ARE PREPARING FOR

Mr. President,

I have just returned from the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Montevideo - the birthplace of the Montevideo Consensus, one of the world's most ambitious commitments to people-centred, rights-based development.

Latin America and the Caribbean is undergoing one of the world's fastest demographic transitions, moving from high fertility to below-replacement fertility in just a few decades. As populations change, policies must evolve with them. Countries need to invest across the life course - from childcare and education to eldercare and long-term social support.

The region offers an important lesson for the world: people are not a demographic problem to solve. They are the power with which we build our future.

Each country's demographic path is different. There is no single policy response. But every effective response begins with rights, choices, quality data and investment in human potential. UNFPA is uniquely positioned to support this work and to advance the exchange of experience through South-South and triangular cooperation.

INNOVATING FOR IMPACT

Mr. President, Excellencies,

Across our mandate, UNFPA is changing how we work to deliver greater and more sustainable impact. We are broadening our financing base, expanding partnerships, strengthening national ownership and using technology responsibly.

Countries are showing what is possible.

In Bangladesh, the Government has committed to creating 25,000 new midwifery posts - an annual investment of US$85 million and the largest domestic investment in midwifery in the country's history. Announced at the International Confederation of Midwives Congress in Lisbon, this commitment answered the global call for one million more midwives.

Through the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, governments invested a record US$68 million in sexual and reproductive health commodities in 2025 - almost six times more than in 2020. In 2025 alone, the Partnership reached more than 23 million women, prevented 10 million unintended pregnancies, averted 3 million unsafe abortions and saved an estimated US$754 million in direct health-care costs.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Government committed more than US$12 million to the Joint Programme on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence - the largest domestic contribution to a UNFPA-led joint programme to date. It also committed US$30 million to support the country's first census in more than 40 years.

We are also expanding our partnerships with international financial institutions. Agreements signed in 2025 were worth approximately US$46 million.

In addition to our new partnership with the African development Bank, our recent partnership with the Asian Development Bank will support expansion of the Philippines' national Maternal Care Benefit Package - an initiative expected to mobilize around US$500 million for maternal health over five years and improve services for up to 1.2 million women each year.

Philanthropic and individual support is growing as well. I thank the Gates Foundation and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation for their longstanding partnership. Coefficient Giving awarded the UNFPA Supplies Partnership a US$10 million grant. In 2025, individual giving mobilized nearly US$10 million, including more than US$7 million in core contributions.

Innovation at UNFPA is not an end in itself. It is how we help countries deliver better results for people.

Today, 80 per cent of our workforce regularly uses secure corporate artificial intelligence tools. Through our Digital Centre of Excellence, we are scaling practical innovations - from AI-powered sexual and reproductive health chatbots and drone delivery to virtual-reality midwifery training and AI-assisted population survey analytics.

In Uzbekistan, UNFPA supported the country's first Population and Agricultural Census in 37 years, providing the disaggregated data needed to plan for more than 30 million people. In Somalia, we are helping bridge decades of population data gaps through satellite imagery, AI and digital data collection.

We have also introduced UNFPA's first foresight policy instrument, enabling country offices to anticipate emerging trends and strengthen programme design. And our Demographic Futures Survey - covering more than 108,000 young adults across 73 countries and territories - is one of the largest studies of young people's aspirations for partnership, parenthood and the future. Its findings will inform our next State of World Population report, to be launched in November.

Innovation delivers greater impact when governments, business, finance and civil society work together. Our Equity 2030 Alliance now brings together more than 130 partners. Through the WomenX Collective, we are helping move promising women's health innovations from prototype to scale. Our Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Business is showing that investment in reproductive health in the workplace is good for people and good for business. I congratulate Finland on becoming the first government to join the Coalition, and I invite others to follow.

HUMANITARIAN ACTION

Mr. President,

Humanitarian needs continue to grow as resources shrink. We are witnessing a deepening protection crisis, with rising attacks on civilians, health facilities - including maternity wards - and the safe spaces on which women and girls depend.

A woman should never have to choose between giving life and losing her own.

Lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services, together with specialized gender-based violence prevention and response, must therefore be part of every humanitarian response from the outset.

This year, 64 million women and girls of reproductive age will require humanitarian assistance. UNFPA is appealing for US$1 billion to reach 34 million women, girls and young people in 43 countries. Yet halfway through the year, we had received less than one third of the funding required, while overall humanitarian funding had declined by 46 per cent compared with the same time last year.

Following the earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia, UNFPA rapidly scaled up maternal health, emergency obstetric care and gender-based violence services for affected communities.

Despite unprecedented constraints, our teams continue to deliver where needs are greatest. Since the start of the year, UNFPA has reached 900,000 people with maternal and reproductive health services in Afghanistan; more than 200,000 people with gender-based violence services in Sudan; and nearly 400,000 people with reproductive health and protection services in Yemen.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNFPA has activated its highest level of emergency response to the Ebola outbreak. Pregnancy and childbirth do not stop during a disease outbreak. Working with the Government, we are deploying midwives, reproductive health kits, medical supplies and protective equipment so that essential maternal health services can continue safely.

In Ukraine, UNFPA is helping maternity hospitals move essential services into protected spaces. Today, two out of every three babies in Ukraine are born in a UNFPA-supported facility.

These are not simply programme outputs. They are multilateralism made real. I urge all Member States to support UNFPA's lifesaving humanitarian work.

Distinguished Members of the Board, the work we deliver on your behalf is demanding. I wish to recognize the extraordinary UNFPA team: Andrew Saberton and Pio Smith; our Executive Committee and Representatives; and every colleague, from drivers and security officers to programme and operations teams. This year, they have served with accountability, efficiency and remarkable resilience. To them all: bravo - and thank you.

ACCOUNTABILITY, COUNTRY OWNERSHIP AND UN80

Mr. President, Distinguished Members of the Executive Board,

UNFPA helps countries build strong institutions, strengthen national capacity and deliver lasting results. We are proud to be a trusted and accountable partner.

Oversight, transparency, accountability and sound risk management remain at the core of our work. I am pleased to report that UNFPA has again received an unqualified audit opinion from the Board of Auditors - our sixteenth consecutive year. We look forward to discussing this further at the January session.

We also welcome the Working Group's efforts to implement the Joint Inspection Unit's recommendations on the governance and oversight of the Executive Boards, and we stand ready to support this important process.

The 12 Country Programme Documents and six extensions before you this week translate our Strategic Plan into nationally owned priorities. They are not simply administrative documents. They are instruments of country ownership, mandate legitimacy and Executive Board accountability.

We support a stronger Resident Coordinator system and greater coherence across United Nations country teams. A stronger Resident Coordinator system and strong agencies are not competing ideas; they are mutually reinforcing. We should simplify and shorten instruments where possible and eliminate duplication wherever it exists. But simplification must preserve the governance function. Coordination and governance are not the same thing. We need both.

UNFPA remains fully committed to the Secretary-General's UN80 Initiative and to ambitious reform across the United Nations system.

The objective is not in question: a United Nations that is more coherent, more efficient and better able to deliver. The question is which institutional arrangements best achieve it.

Reform should ultimately be judged not by the structures we change, but by what changes for people.

Nothing should be protected simply because it has always existed. Institutions are instruments of service. Our mandates and the people we serve are the purpose. Our task is not to begin with an institutional conclusion; it is to begin with the outcomes we want to achieve.

Every option should therefore be judged against clear tests. Does it safeguard and strengthen the mandates entrusted by Member States? Does it preserve the field capability, expertise, commodities, humanitarian reach, data systems and political space required to deliver them? Does it improve financing, accountability and impact? Mandate without capability is a promise without the means to keep it.

As requested by the Executive Board, UNFPA worked with UN Women, under the guidance of the Secretary-General's Office, to produce and assess alternative options. Irrespective of the eventual institutional model, there are significant opportunities for deeper collaboration between UNFPA and UN Women, and I am committed to pursuing them.

As the Secretary-General has underscored, at this stage the overall direction and scale of UN80 lie in the hands of Member States to determine. Any decision affecting mandates or governance must therefore proceed through the appropriate intergovernmental processes, informed by credible evidence and a clear understanding of costs, benefits and risks.

You entrusted us with this mandate. You approve our strategic direction. You hold us accountable for results. Your perspectives, questions and scrutiny are not peripheral to reform; they are essential to getting reform right.

My commitment to this Board is simple: I will engage with an open mind. I will bring you the evidence with candour. And I will listen.

I will not ask whether a proposal protects UNFPA as we know it. I will ask whether it protects and strengthens what Member States created UNFPA to do - and whether it enables us to deliver better for women, girls, young people and entire populations.

FINANCING THE ROAD AHEAD

Mr. President,

Thanks to the generous support of Member States and our partners, UNFPA received more than US$1.4 billion in contributions in 2025 - a reflection of continued confidence in our mandate, results and accountability.

Even so, the funding environment remains difficult. In 2025, core funding declined by 10 per cent, non-core funding by 14 per cent and humanitarian funding by 31 per cent, leaving many crises underfunded as needs continued to rise.

We welcome the growth of flexible instruments, including thematic and pooled funds. But core resources remain the foundation of UNFPA's work. They sustain our presence in more than 150 countries, support our normative mandate, enable rapid humanitarian action, drive innovation, and finance the oversight systems that ensure accountability.

I therefore encourage all Member States to contribute to core resources, ideally through early, multi-year commitments, while increasing support for our humanitarian responses, including through the Humanitarian Thematic Fund and pooled mechanisms.

To programme countries, I encourage you to continue expanding domestic investment and to work with us on financing solutions that unlock sustainable resources. Our Strategic Plan 2026-2029 is designed for this moment: to accelerate the three transformative results, strengthen demographic resilience, and ensure that rights and choices remain at the centre of development.

Mr. President, Excellencies,

The women, girls and young people we serve never see our balance sheet. They do not care about our funding architecture. They know only whether we are there when they need us.

With less than five years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda is not an institutional deadline. It is an unfinished promise - to the woman who should survive childbirth; to the girl who should live free from violence; to the young person who deserves the opportunity to shape their future; and to the country that needs reliable data to plan for generations to come.

At my first Board session as Executive Director last January, I asked: Are you with us? Can I count on you?

Over this first year, you have answered through your partnership, your support and, equally important, your scrutiny. Today, I offer you the same assurance: you can count on UNFPA.

Together, let us ensure that reform strengthens service, that financing follows need, and that multilateralism is measured in lives changed.

The future will not be determined by how many we are, but by what we enable each of us to become.

Je vous remercie de votre aimable attention.