Format: Real

Duration: 35:34 mins.

Inter Press Service International Achievement Award
United Nations, New York, 11 December 2000

REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR PENNY A. WENSLEY
Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations

It is a singular honour to have been asked to give the key note speech at this event to honour Dr. Nafis Sadik of UNFPA. I thank the Inter Press Service (IPS) for this privilege - and for its sensitivity and understanding that it is particularly appropriate to have a woman's voice lead the tributes being paid this evening.

IPS

That sensitivity and awareness of the interests and concerns of vulnerable people and places, of how best to make their problems known and inspire action to change their circumstances, is of course, at the heart of the work of the IPS.

Founded 36 years ago as an independent, international news agency specialising in issues of development in countries of the south, IPS has gradually extended its reach and its influence to have a global character. Whilst that reach is now very wide, it is probably most valued for its focus on the environment, for its work on population and development and on gender concerns. As one of the ten only women PR's, out of 189 here at the UN in New York, I am especially pleased to note that IPS has been using grant support for work to ensure that gender concerns are understood by IPS journalists and editors, and to develop tools that can ensure that gender perspectives are taken account of in all IPS reports. Bravo IPS! and bravo for establishing the IPS International Achievement Award and for the choice of this year's winner - a truly remarkable woman.

DR NAFIS SADIK

Here at the UN, We hear many speeches and tributes; we are accustomed to a constant parade of leaders and achievers; distinguished CV's and impressive "Bios" are our daily fare – and our palate thus easily jaded. It is also easy, in the haste of our lives, the preoccupation with the next deadline, the current negotiation, the next appointment, to give only scant attention to the matter at hand, to be only half listening to whoever is speaking, whilst mentally planning the next move, personal or political. Please don't do that tonight - for this is a remarkable woman: and while you may think you know her and about her leadership of UNFPA, I suspect many here do not have a full sense of her accomplishments, her talents, her interests, her whole life - as opposed to the outline persona framed in her official "Bio."

I would like, this evening, like IPS, which prides itself on providing “contextualised reports that go behind the news", to try to take you behind the official CV, behind the bare chronology and the string of awards and honours listed in the papers made available to you and give you some glimpses of Nafis which I hope will stir some personal memories for some, and by recalling important moments and highpoints in her life and work, evoke a sharper sense of just how much the world -and especially women - owe her; how her actions, her conviction and her courage have driven change and transformed the way we think about population, about family planning, about gender and development, and about women, including women as leaders.

While I could not claim to have privileged access or information about Nafis, I have known her and her work for a long time (our parths may first have crossed at the first International Women's Conference, in Mexico City, in 1975 and we worked particularly closely together during the 1994 Barbados conference on the sustainable development of small island development states). While not a close friend, I am certainly a deep admirer; and I did feel that my task tonight gave me a certain "need to know", which justified my asking lots of questions of lots of people, many of whom were remarkably forthcoming.

I hope, Nafis, that you won't mind some of the more personal elements, but my myriad conversations certainly painted a vivid picture of your life and work and underscored the absolute appropriateness of the IPS decision to name you as the IPS Achievement Award winner for this millenium year 2000.

BEGINNINGS: WHAT MAKES A LEADER?

In the six years I have represented Australia at the UN - first in Geneva and now in New York - I have become more and more convinced that the/the key to achieving things is to have the right people in the right jobs.

The UN - indeed the world - needs leaders. Nafis Sadik is such a person, but how did she become that? How did she end up in the right job? What makes a leader?

It is an interesting story, with some classic elements (family, education, environment) and some not so classic, about which more later.

Firstly, the family.

Her parents, Iffat Ara and Mohammed Shoaib, certainly played a decisive role. Her father was the first Finance Minister of Pakistan and Senior Vice President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). He was also a visionary who believed in the education of girls as well as boys, who encouraged her to speak up and express her point of view, not simply accepting as given what elders or persons in positions of power said. Many of her friends and colleagues have heard Nafis say that her father was a very unusual man and an inspiration in her life - that he encouraged her, at a time when women did not naturally proceed to higher education and indeed, against the wishes of the rest of her family, to study.

EDUCATION

And study she most certainly did, and so we come to the second classic element in success, education (something that we now know also as a fundamental ingredient in successful development strategies, i.e. the education of girls and women).

After finishing high school at Loretto College in Calcutta, Nafis considered two professions - engineering and medicine. Recognising that the world was not ready to accept women Engineers, she entered Dow Medical College in Karachi, specialising in gynecology and obstetrics. with her father's continued encouragement and help, she pursued her studies abroad, serving her internship in gynecology and obstetrics at City Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A; then did further studies, at John Hopkins University, also in the U.S.A. and research, as a research fellow in physiology at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario in Canada. (some cold - and probably lonely - places, a long way from her birthplace in Jaunpur, India and her home and family in Pakistan).

So perhaps it was not surprising (although that is not/not what all students from developing countries do when they have completed their higher studies abroad, surrounded by the seductive comforts and life style of a different world) that Nafis returned to Pakistan to work. And here we come to the third influence - culture and environment.

With her new title of "Dr", Nafis started her professional life as a young female physician, providing health services to military personnel. From 1954 to 1963, she served as civilian medical doctor in charge of women's and children's wards in various Pakistan armed forces hospitals, directing a medical staff of up to 50 officers. That experience was pivotal: it shows us at a very early point in her career her managerial and leadership promise, but more important, what she saw and observed and what troubled her in those hospitals, and how she dealt with that, set her life's course. She saw that lack of access to education, to the knowledge and means to control fertility was a serious handicap to young couples, but especially to women. She saw that there was far more to health than medicine: she saw that the freedom to make choices was the most precious of human rights. Many of the women she treated simply accepted that hard work, poor health, frequent pregnancies and a high risk of death in childbirth are women´s fate. They did not know or believe they had a choice.

Nafis questioned this - and she acted on her questions. At a time when this was virtually a taboo subject, she made it her business to ensure that her patients were aware of family planning and that they had access to contraceptive information and devices - a commitment that put her at odds with her immediate superiors and that threatened to end her career almost before it began. but she stood up to her bosses and in the process gained the attention of the head of Pakistan's new national family planning program. (But that's the next chapter; I'm getting ahead of myself in this great story). she also, at this formative time asked questions of the husbands of the women she treated, pushing them to think about their responsibilities - and the high costs of constant pregnancies, of the consequences, for them, their families and communities, of the illness or premature loss of their partner.

PARTNER AND LIFE SUPPORT

Speaking of partners, I said earlier there were some classic elements in the forces that have helped shaped Nafis' life I have told you about some of the more obvious one, the influence of her parents, her education, her work situation. There is another, perhaps less obvious one, of fundamental importance, which must be acknowledged tonight as we pay tribute to her - and that is that of her husband, businessman Azhar Sadik. We all know the cliché that behind every successful man, there stands a strong woman. Well, here the role is reversed - and, in our society today, whether in countries of the North or the South, it is still a difficult role for a man to play, requiring not only strength, but patience, tolerance, understanding, and generosity: generosity in the early years, to do more than one's fair share of the parenting and family organisation; in the middle years, as the wife's career is taking off, perhaps to forgo one's own advancement, to accept absences, frequent travel, disruption, interruption, the intrusion on privacy, the sharing of one's wife and life with many people claiming her time and attention; and, finally, when success is assured, to do all this doubled and then stand quietly in the shadow cast by the spotlight on her.

I do hope, Nafis, I have not taken any liberties here - but I do know you have three children (two girls and one boy) and two adopted children, and the effort that raising a family involves; I do know, first-hand, the way you have worked for many years - the hours, days and nights spent in tense negotiations - and the toll this takes on one's personal life and relationships; I do know how often and much you have travelled for UNFPA; of how ready you are, always, to give yet another speech, attend yet another dinner - and again, the private price that is paid by husband and family for your doing this. And I do know that you have told others that you consider yourself most fortunate in having a husband who, unlike many men in his generation, fully supported your choice to follow a career, even when it took you away from him and the family; and that through the many years of your marriage and life together, you have felt him a tower of strength. So ladies and gentlemen, tonight's award also honours this special partnership and this strong and supportive husband.

It is right that it should do so, because the causes which Dr Sadik has made her life work, of family planning and reproductive health, whilst patently women-centred, cannot be advanced without cooperation between men and women, without changing the attitudes of men.

Nafis understood this early - from her days of challenging the soldiers in the military hospitals, then, as I mentioned earlier, having caught the eye of the government, as she moved to become a bureaucrat.

NEXT STEPS: A NATIONAL ROLE

In 1964, now married, with her own children and juggling career and family, she was appointed head of the health section of the Pakistan government's Planning Commission, responsible for developing, preparing and evaluating a five year health and family planning program as part of the government's overall development plan. Pakistan's first population policy emerged the following year, with Nafis the primary author.

In 1966, she became Director of Planning and Training at the Pakistan Central Family Planning Council, the government agency charged with carrying out the national family planning programme. In 1968, she was appointed Deputy Director General; in 1970 Director General.

AND SO TO THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

Having moved, in six short years, to the top of her field at the national level, perhaps it was inevitable that she turned to greater challenges internationally. In 1971, she accepted the invitation of Dr Rafael Salas, the first head of UNFPA, to join the new UN Fund for Population Activities.

And the rest is history: within two years, she was chief of the programme division and had become one of Dr Salas's most valued lieutenants, heading the program responsible for designing all of UNFPA's country assistance projects. During this period, Dr Sadik established a reputation as a top-flight program manager and as an effective advocate, honing the skills which became the hall marks of her leadership.

She assisted Dr Salas in preparations for the 1974 International Population Conference and then, having moved quietly up another rung of the leadership ladder by becoming Deputy Executive Director in 1982, played a major role with the 1984 Population Conference. One, even two summits, like the famous swallows and summer, do not guarantee a change of season or of policy. Nafis took on primary responsibility within UNFPA for translating the policy commitments and decisions of these conferences into program action. She was also, I am told, during this period, a formidable fundraiser for UNFPA's program and a stern taskmaster for the UNFPA field staff. (I was not surprised to learn this: she can be intimidating on, occasions, but is also, I know, someone who inspires great loyalty in her staff and colleagues, even those who smart from blasts of impatience or exasperation, which, like sea squalls, blow up quickly and then are forgotten by her just as quickly as they came and as rapidly as she herself has moved on to the next task).

THE TOP JOB

In 1987, when Dr Salas died suddenly, it was to Dr Sadik that the then UN Secretary General, Perez de Cuellar, turned to take on the top job. One might think, listening to my recitation of her work, that this was a natural choice, well deserved and earned -and of course, it was - but then again, it wasn't. All women who have pursued their careers in a male-dominated working environment (and I stress that. I use this phrase as a matter of objective fact, and not in any way pejoratively) know that the politics of power don't always lead to logical appointments, based on merit. They also know that the dominant leadership "model" is fundamentally masculine.

In 1987, forty years after the founding of the UN, there had never been a woman appointed to a top position, anywhere in the organisation. So when Dr Sadik was chosen to head UNFPA, she made history, becoming the first woman to head one of the UN's major voluntary funded programs, and the first woman executive head in the UN system. This was a singular achievement, marking indelibly her shift of status from being a pioneer in Pakistan to one in and for the United Nations and for women world wide.

Nafis has been honoured - and will be remembered - for many things: for her advocacy, her capacity to lead and inspire, her candour, her effectiveness as a manager (someone made a very telling comment that she proved not only can women head agencies, they can manage them effectively). But above all, it will be her contribution to the advancement of women that will define her life and her legacy.

WORKING FOR WOMEN

Volumes have been written on this subject: I want to recall some of Nafis' own words tonight, written in 1998, in a feature article for the Asia-Pacific News, distributed by the UN in the region where my own country, Australia, belongs.

Dr Sadik wrote:

"Women's opportunities and aspirations are limited by the structure of society, and by interpretations of their role as limited to childbearing. Many women are hardly aware of their civil rights. We suffer in fact from a long history of domination and discrimination. There is no justification for this, either in tradition of the past or in the needs of the future." ... We must ...build a more enlightened world that recognises that men and women must have equality of opportunity and choices". (United Nations-Asia Pacific News-volume 3, No. 1 July-September 1998. “Celebrating all rights for all. Women have social needs”, by Dr Nafis Sadik, Executive Director, UNFPA).

Wonderful words ... classic Sadik, in fact ... state the facts clearly, if not bluntly; reject the unacceptable; focus on the future, emphasise choice.

UNFPA

Dr Sadik has made choice and women's rights the epi-centre of UNFPA, and in so doing, achieved an historic transformation, not only of the fund itself and the way it manages its three core programme areas (reproductive health of women, including family planning and sexual health; population and development strategies; advocacy), but in the wider un system, moving population matters from a technical, health issue to a rights-based approach, focused on the individual and, equally important, linking them inextricably to development and more specifically to sustainable development. She understood and clarified for others - these vital linkages long before the academics and researchers invented the jargon to make them fashionable - "civil society; partnerships, gender balance, empowerment", all roll off our lips very readily these days, but Nafis, not solely, but with great unique determination, ploughed the soil in which the seeds of these important ideas all grew.

And it was not easy.

NAFIS THE FIGHTER

Almost everyone to whom I spoke about Nafis, and the many speeches that i read to help me prepare this keynote address and paint this spoken portrait of her, used or else evoked "warrior words" to describe her: courageous, determined, brave, a fighter, a hero, doing battle.

Interestingly masculine terms to describe this diminutive, very feminine woman, swathed in her gorgeous striking saris and flashing her beloved and very beautiful jewelry. Of course, these very womanly things, again and as always, a matter of choice, were part of her armoury, insisting on her femininity and her difference in a world mostly controlled by men.

In 1995, at a conference on women and the United Nations, to commemorate international women´s day and the 50th anniversary of the UN, in a speech entitled "Why gender balance matters", Nafis wrote:

"I would like to underscore that the conferences in Cairo and Beijing are not isolated events, but rather should be seen as critical stepping stones in the process of promoting gender equality. Speaking as one of the “world's women”, I would urge that we fashion a strategic agenda and forge the solidarity necessary to achieve it. We must recognise that the realisation of our agenda requires that we find mechanisms for working effectively with decision-makers - most of whom, at this time, are men. I do not see empowerment of women as a zero-sum game in which women's gains are men's losses-rather, I see women´s empowerment as the rising tide which will raise ships". (Women and the United Nations. Speeches delivered at a conference in honour of Eleanor Roosevelt and commemorating International Women's Day and the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. UN Trusteeship Council Chamber, March 14,1995, published by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, Hyde Park, New York; "Why gender balance matters", by Nafis Sadik, Under Secretary General and Executive Director, UNFPA)

Again, remarkable, inspirational words - typical not just of her fighting spirit but of her sharp political instincts, her understanding that achieving change, real change, must involve a combination of confrontation and of cooperation, of knowing when to challenge, when to speak up and when to be quiet.

I guess Nafis is better known for speaking up than keeping quiet, but I have seen her in action in many in different circumstances, and I know she has developed over the years a veritable arsenal of political skills. And I also know that she needed to deploy these at every turn - for there were some who opposed her and who sought to constrain aspects of the work of the agency to which she has committed three decades of her life. UNFPA began its existence in controversy and under pressure, operating out of a tiny cluster of offices outside the main un complex. Under the leadership of her predecessor, the fledgling agency fought for recognition, for funding, to establish acceptance of the link between population and development. Nafis inherited a stronger organisation, but has still had throughout her tenure to fight for funds and deal with the complex politics that surround family planning and women´s rights, at the national level and internationally.

She has done it with sensitivity and style - and that characteristic bravery that defines her for so many people. At this point, I want to quote a colleague of Dr Sadik's in the UN Secretariat, who has greater freedom than I, as a government representative, to comment candidly on such matters. This person sent me the following:

"(Nafis) assumed this position at a time of great conflict in the population field. Various forces of opposition to organised international family planning efforts had intensified their activities in many countries and were gearing up for a showdown at the next international population conference, scheduled for 1994. At the same time, a global feminist groundswell was building in opposition to demographically oriented family planning programs that activists in the movement believed were harmful to efforts to improve overall healthcare for women. These two forces came to a head in the two years preceding the international conference on population and development, held in Cairo in 1994. Dr Sadik's job was to maintain the broad global consensus on population policy and program issues that had evolved over the previous 20 years, while at the same time dealing effectively with these stern challenges to that consensus.

Through a series of bold actions and tactical adjustments, this is precisely what she did. (She) travelled to the Vatican and (met) Pope John Paul II. (She stood up for women's [and couples'] reproductive rights and freedoms) while respecting the Church's right to its particular views on contraception and abortion. Later, she played a similar role vis-à-vis Islamic theologians.

Similarly, (she) met early on with many groups of women´s health advocates and activists. She listened carefully to their views and to the argument that programs needed to be more balanced - to commit themselves to a higher standard of service and care and to incorporate, alongside family planning, a broader set of women´s health interventions, most particularly protection against sexually transmitted diseases and emergency obstetrical care.

In her leadership of the preparatory process leading to the watershed Cairo conference, and her management of the conference itself, she literally changed the face of population policy for ever."

Now while some may not like the candour of that appraisal, nor everyone agree with the analysis, there is universal agreement that Cairo was a turning point and that it was a, if not the, highpoint of Dr Sadik's career. Perhaps at that point, already in her sixties, she might have thought of retirement, of time to enjoy, as she often mentions, her grandchildren and her beloved sport (I bet few among you know just what a sports fan she is - and how expert she is in this field also, capable of quoting minute, even obscure details about somebody's homerun record, batting average or number of slam dunks?)

But no - in the five years since, we have had Cairo plus five, Beijing plus five, the Millennium Summit- and in all of these, the voice of UNFPA and of its irrepressible Executive Director has rung out just as strongly as it did before and at Cairo.

Just how strongly and effectively was recalled recently by the executive director of UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown, in a speech he made in September, to a joint meeting of the executive boards of UNDP and UNFPA.

Speaking about the very difficult negotiations then going on at the Beijing plus five conference, certainly some of the toughest and most confused that I have experienced in many years of representing Australia at major international conferences, Mark said:

"While others on the floor or in the corridor were still fighting over small but vital details, (and) the rest of us on the podium were giving exhortatory statements about the mission of Beijing and the faultless track records of our agencies or governments, she unapologetically and unequivocally took off the gloves. She directly challenged delegations to remove the little qualifications, hesitations and brackets so beloved of un negotiators and endorse a strong, unequivocal document that paid attention to key issues like the rights of women to health and protection (against) violence. Her listeners were first surprised, then slightly stunned but turned. I have no doubt that her words and her passion played a very big part in moving them towards accepting a document that articulates the needs and aspirations of all women, North and South, young and old, rich and poor."

A lot of people remember that moment and that speech - one woman in the Secretariat told me last week that it gave her goose bumps listening to it. Perhaps without realising it; she was so affected, physically, because what she was experiencing was a quintessential moment of courage, of leadership.

And that is what this IPS Award is for: to honour persons capable of such actions. And of producing such reactions. For we will not achieve change in this world without it.

Tonight, Dr Sadik joins a distinguished field of awardees since 1985, of journalists, politicians and leaders, honoured for their accomplishments in international journalism, or for promoting democracy and human rights. Dr Sadik is only the fourth woman of a total of 17 recipients, so here, too, she continues to make a difference as a woman and for women.

THE FUTURE

As she enters retirement, I doubt her work is done - she should take things easier (she gave her friends and family and no doubt herself, a scare a few years back with her heart surgery); she should take more time to give expression to that rich and wicked sense of humour of hers (this is a lady who is not only frank but funny); she should take more time to watch and bet on the sports she loves; she should spend more time with her husband, her children, her grandchildren and her many, many friends, but:

The patterns and passions of a lifetime are not easily altered or abandoned, and so I expect she will continue to fight for change and for what is right, fundamentally for women, but in so doing, for all of humanity.

And for this we should be truly grateful.

Nafis once said, "population is not a matter of numbers: it is a matter of people".

In responding to the responsibility IPS gave me this evening, in trying to do justice to this event and the person it honours, I wanted above all to make sure that tonight also was not a matter of numbers but a matter of people, and of one person in particular, whose life has made a real difference to others and will continue to do so.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in paying tribute to this very special woman, Dr Nafis Sadik.