Count on United Nations System to Help Meet Needs of 120 Million Additional

 

Women by 2020, Secretary-General Tells London Family Planning Summit

 

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message to the London Summit on Family Planning, in the United Kingdom on 11 July:

Prime Minister David Cameron, Mrs. Melinda Gates, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Ms. Michele Bachelet, Dr. Margaret Chan, distinguished colleagues and Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to greet the London Summit on Family Planning.

By enabling women to avoid unwanted pregnancies and choose how many children to have, and when, we save lives and improve health.  I commend the Government of the United Kingdom, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other partners.   You have come together to focus on family planning as part of our broader efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health.

This Summit has set the ambitious but achievable goal of meeting the unmet needs of 120 million more women by 2020.  You can count on the United Nations family to do its part, led by Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin.  UNFPA will continue to provide effective leadership of our work to improve the choices available to girls, women and couples.  We will help all partners to align and coordinate their efforts to provide the necessary information, services and supplies.

The health of women and children is my personal priority.  I urge all Governments and partners to work with us as part of the Every Woman, Every Child movement to ensure that no child is born unwanted and no woman dies needlessly in childbirth.

I wish you a productive meeting.

Thank you.

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For information media • not an official record