A new report from the UN comes just ahead of a demographic milestone: the world’s population is expected to pass 7 billion in late October, only a dozen years after it surpassed 6 billion. The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) is about to release a new campaign urging each individual and organization to take creative action to solve the immense problems we face as global interconnected community. To quote from the brochure, “every day one billion of us go hungry, two billion of us are surviving on less than $1 a day, one billion of us don’t have access to clean water and more than one thousand women die in pregnancy or during childbirth each day.”
“In a world that is more interconnected than ever before, challenges such as poverty, inequality, women’s rights, aging and the environment belong to all of us.”
“These are problems that can, and must be solved. Thankfully, significant strides are being made by committed organizations and impassioned individuals all over the world. Working together, incremental actions will create exponential results.”
I am very proud that many of my images are being used to highlight this call to action. Below are ten posters featuring the campaign. Other photographs will also be used in a National Geographic insert, a multi-media web presentation and an exhibit in Copenhagen.
For those not familiar with UNFPA, the “United Nations Population Fund is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. UNFPA – because everyone counts.”
For the remainder of the year I will be posting stories on some of the issues that I have documented this past year, including a girl’s education project in Rajasthan, India and family planning programs in Latin America for Planned Parenthood. I also will be working in Kenya and Ethiopia, documenting malaria treatment and prevention and women’s reproductive healthcare.