Fighting for facts and funding: UNFPA’s new chief steps into the storm
When Diene Keita officially took over the leadership of the United Nations Population Fund in August, the agency was already reeling from U.S. funding cuts and misinformation about its work.
The U.S. terminated funding for more than 40 of the agency’s humanitarian projects, and decided to withhold future funding to the agency based on unfounded and long-disproved claims of it being involved in coercive abortion in China.
UNFPA had anticipated being defunded by the Trump administration — every Republican president has done so since Ronald Reagan — and had started mobilizing resources from other donors prior. But the cuts, amounting to nearly $336 million, were no less brutal. The organization also let go of around 100 of its 6,000 staffers, according to Keita.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
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