Dr. Nafis Sadik M.D.

Dr. Nafis Sadik is the Executive Director of the United National Population Fund (UNFPA) and holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. On her appointment in 1987, she became the first woman to head one of the United Nations major voluntarily-funded programmes.
As chief executive of UNFPA, the world’s largest source of multilateral assistance to population programmes with a programme level of approximately $300 million in 1995, Dr. Sadik directs a worldwide staff of about 800. UNFPA provides assistance for over 140 countries and territories throughout the world. Since its inception in 1969, cumulative pledges through 1994 totalled approximately $3.1 billion from a total of 167 donors.
Dr. Sadik has consistently called attention to the importance of addressing the needs of women, and of involving women directly in making and carrying out development policy. This is particularly important for population polices and programmes. At UNFPA, 44 percent of the professional staff are women. The Fund has promoted more women to leadership positions than any other part of the United National system.
In June 1990, the Secretary-General of the United Nations appointed Dr. Sadik Secretary-General of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), 1994.
A national of Pakistan, Dr. Sadik was born in Jaunpur, India, the daughter of Iffat Ara and Mohammad Shoaib. Mr. Shoaib served as Finance Minister of Pakistan And as Vice-President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). Dr. Sadik was educated at Loreto College (Calcutta) and received her doctor of medicine degree frome Dow Medical College (Karachi). She served her internship in gynaecology and obstetrics at City Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). Dr. Sadik completed further studies at the Johns Hopkins University (USA) and held the post of research fellow in physiology at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario (Canada).
From 1954 to 1963, Dr. Sadik served as civilian medical officer in charge of women’s and children’s wards in various Pakistani armed forces hospitals, directing a medical staff of up to 50 officers. In 1964, she was appointed Head of the Health Section of the Government’s Planning Commission, responsible for developing, preparing and evaluating a five-year health and family planning programme as part of the nation’s overall development plan.
In 1996, Dr. Sadik became Director of Planning and Training of the Pakistan Central Family Planning Council, the Government agency charged with carrying out the national family planning programme. She was appointed Deputy Director-General in 1966 and Director-General in 1970. Dr. Sadik joined UNFPA in October 1971, and became chief of the Programme Division in 1973. From 1982 until 1987, she was Assistant Executive Director.
Dr. Sadik was the first female recipient of the Hugh Moore Award in 1976, named after a pioneer in the United States credited with calling attention to the world population crisis. She was cited for her leadership in the family planning field as well as for her leadership in encouraging other women to find careers in the population field. Dr. Sadik is a member of the Association of Pakistani Physicians in the United States. She was elected to the 1988 Fellowship ad ourdem of the Royal College of Obstericians and Gynaecologists in the United Kingdom.