•  united nations, new york
• Monday, January 16, 2012
• Inter Press Service

Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), has been declared a winner of the Population Institute’s 2011 Annual Global Media Awards for Excellence in Population Reporting. The awards, which are in their 32nd year, honour those who help raise public awareness of the challenges related to population and reproductive health.

Dr. Osotimehin received this distinction in the category of Best Print Editorial for an op-ed piece that was published in a leading weekly journal, Science, in July 2011. The editorial, Population and Development , highlights how population affects our planet’s future, and explains challenges facing a world of 7 billion people in terms of poverty reduction, pollution, food, water scarcity and health. It also stresses that population initiatives that are grounded in human rights must be the central objective of national development policies that benefit families, communities and nations. During the award ceremony that took place in New York last week, Dr. Osotimehin said he was receiving the award on behalf of UNFPA, and dedicated it to survivors of obstetr ic fistula . Other winners included an Ethiopian serial drama, a Kenyan news article series, a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, and the highly regarded American news programme, the Public Broadcasting Service’s NewsHour.

The Population Institute is a major US-based non-governmental organization founded in 1969 to promote universal access to family planning information, education and services.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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