The Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Organization (UN)Natalia Kanem, who also holds the position of Executive Director of the Population Fund of the global entity (UNFPA), began a visit to Cuba on Tuesday in response to an invitation from the island’s government.
Kanem’s stay will last until next Wednesday, and the program includes exchanges with national authorities, as well as tours of projects developed by UNFPA in the Caribbean nation, according to a note of Ministry of Relations and Foreign Affairs (MINREX).
The text adds that the visitor also plans to participate in the Cuba-Health International Convention 2022inaugurated this Monday at the Palace of Conventions with the presence of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and in which delegates from more than 60 countries and figures such as Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Natalia Kanem, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will visit #Cuba?? from today responding to an invitation from the Cuban Government.
?https://t.co/4YUaG9QqhB pic.twitter.com/z3IraR8ASj
— Cuban Foreign Ministry (@CubaMINREX) October 18, 2022
According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Natalia Kanem has a history of more than 30 years of strategic leadership in the fields of medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy.
His academic career began at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Columbia University School of Public Health in the United States. Between 2014 and 2016, she represented UNFPA in the United Republic of Tanzania, and in July of that year she was appointed UNFPA Deputy Executive Director and head of programs, the diplomatic source specifies.
She was also founding president of ELMA Philanthropies Inc., a private institution whose work is primarily directed towards children and youth in Africa, and served as a senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
The official has a degree in Medicine from Columbia University (New York) and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Washington (Seattle), specializing in Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. Likewise, she graduated with honors from Harvard University, where she studied History and Science.
Natalia Kanem is the fifth Executive Director of UNFPA since the Fund began its activity in 1969, highlights the information.
