Executive Director

 

BIOGRAPHY

On 1 January 2011, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, a physician and public health expert, became only the fourth Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Before this appointment, Dr. Osotimehin was Nigeria’s Minister of Health. Prior to that, he was Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinates HIV and AIDS work in a country of more than 160 million people.

Dr. Osotimehin qualified as a doctor from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1972, and went to the University of Birmingham, England, where he got a doctorate in medicine in 1979. He was appointed Professor at the University of Ibadan in 1980 and headed the Department of Clinical Pathology before being elected Provost of the College of Medicine in 1990. Years later, he served in several organizations, including as Chair of the National Action Committee on AIDS, from 2002 to 2007. Dr. Osotimehin received the Nigerian national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in December 2005.

At UNFPA, he has introduced major reforms to make the Fund more focused and results-oriented as well as intensified efforts to promote the rights and ability of young people to build a better world in the context of sexual and reproductive health.

He is married and has five children.

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EDUCATION 

  • Dr. Osotimehin is a physician who graduated from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with an MBBS in 1972
  • Received a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, in 1979

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

  • African Spokesperson, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Minister of Health, Nigeria, December 2008–March 2010
  • Director-General, Nigerian National Agency for the Control of AIDS, March 2007–December 2008
  • Chairman, National Action Committee on AIDS, Nigeria, July 2002–March 2007
  • Project Manager, HIV/AIDS Programme Development Project (World Bank-Assisted), 2002-2008
  • Chairman, Project Governing Board, Joint Regional HIV/AIDS Project in the Abidjan–Lagos Transport Corridor, 2003-2008
  • Vice-President, 14th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA), 2005
  • Chairman, Committee of Presidential Advisers of AIDS Watch Africa
  • Member, Policy and Strategy Committee, Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
  • Member, Global Steering Committee on Universal Access
  • Coordinator, the Social Sciences and Reproductive Health Research Network, Ibadan, Nigeria (an interdisciplinary network comprising sociologists, economists, doctors, lawyers, psychologists and human nutritionists dedicated to applying innovative research techniques to reproductive health and human development)
  • Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, 1990–1994
  • Professor of Clinical Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, 1980.

MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS

  • Member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK)
  • Fellow in Endocrinology, Cornell University Graduate School of Medicine, New York, United States, 1979-1980
  • Distinguished Visitor, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, United States, 1996
  • Visiting Fellow, Harvard Centre for Population and Development Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, 1996-1997
  • Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences since 2006.
  • Population Association of America
  • International Advisory Group, Population and Reproductive Health, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago
  • Regional Advisory Panel (Africa and the Middle East), Special Programme on Research and Research Training in the Human Reproduction Programme of the World Health Organization
  • Chairman of the Committee to draft a Policy on Basic Health Sciences Research and Health Technology Delivery for the Nigerian Government
  • Nigerian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism
  • The Nigerian Medical Association
  • The Nigerian Institute of Management

MAJOR CONFERENCES AND FORUMS ATTENDED

  • The International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994
  • The United Nations Women’s Conference, Beijing, 1995
  • Confintea - UNESCO 5th International Conference on Adult Education, Hamburg, Germany, 1997
  • The 2nd International Interdisciplinary Conference on Women and Health, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1999
  • World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization, 2006–2009
  • United Nations General Assembly, New York, 2006-2010
  • Virtually every major international forum on HIV and AIDS, such as:

- African Development Forum on AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge, Addis Ababa, December, 2000
- Organization of African Unity Special Meeting on HIV/AIDS in Africa, Abuja, Nigeria, April 2001
- United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions/Meetings on HIV and AIDS, New York, 2003 and 2006
- International Conferences on AIDS and STIs in Africa, Nairobi (2003) and Abuja (2005)
- General Assembly of the African Union, Addis Ababa (2004) and Khartoum (2006)
- International AIDS Conferences in Barcelona (2002); Bangkok (2004); Toronto (2006) and Mexico City (2005)

HONOUR

  • Awarded the Nigerian national honour, Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), December 2005.

RELATED INFO

Official Photo 1 (hi res)

Official Photo 2 (hi res)

Photo Gallery

Opinion Pieces

Swearing-in Ceremony - VIDEO

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27 September 2013

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26 September 2013

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26 September 2013

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25 September 2013

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UNITED NATIONS, New York – World leaders committed today to stepping up their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – particularly in areas where progress has stalled, including universal access to primary education, child mortality, universal access to reproductive health, including maternal health, and others. more
23 September 2013

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21 September 2013

High-Level Forum on MDG5

UNITED NATIONS, New York – With less than 900 days remaining to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Forum brings together a High-Level Panel to discuss what needs to be done to rapidly accelerate the achievement of MDG5 – improve maternal health. Although progress has been made, MDG5 falls far short of agreed targets. Reaching MDG5 requires focusing on proven interventions to reduce maternal death and achieve universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, by 2015 and beyond. more
21 September 2013

Towards the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence

UNITED NATIONS, New York – Representatives of UN Member States, UN agencies and NGOs met to receive an update on UNFPA’s flagship programmes targeting gender-based violence in development and humanitarian contexts, and to learn about new plans to scale-up the organization’s interventions. more