“It Always Starts Locally”: Dr. Mahmoud Fathalla Receives United Nations Population Award

EngenderHealth joins the global health community in congratulating Dr. Mahmoud Fahmy Fathalla for receiving the 2009 United Nations Population Award. Dr. Fathalla, a former member of EngenderHealth’s Board of Directors, has been a stalwart champion of women’s health and rights for more than three decades. The morning of the award ceremony, June 1, Dr. Fathalla stopped by EngenderHealth’s New York office for a celebration and to share some words of wisdom.

A renowned doctor and professor of obstetrics and gynecology in Egypt, Dr. Fathalla spoke about his own experience and how he got into the field: “It always starts locally. I made a decision to work in the poor, underserved part of Egypt—I wanted to help in marginalized communities.” Originally interested in ovarian tumors, Dr. Fathalla explained that he very quickly realized that his true calling was elsewhere: “In the parts of the world where people are poor, women are the poorest of the poorest, and powerless. And when you are poor and powerless, that is the worst.” He believed that improving women’s access to high-quality reproductive health care would be a key to changing this.

In 1974, Dr. Fathalla founded the Egyptian Fertility Care Society, which has helped to improve population and reproductive health in the country. On the global scale, he founded the World Federation of Associations for Voluntary Sterilization in 1975, making sterilization and other long-acting methods of contraception integral components of national family planning programs worldwide and advancing the concept of informed choice.

A visionary leader in the international reproductive health field, Dr. Fathalla’s insights and passion helped shape and set the population and reproductive health agenda for decades to come. His legacy includes helping to define and develop a shared understanding of the term “reproductive health” and its importance for human welfare and development.

Dedicated to improving maternal health around the world, Dr. Fathalla was also a founder of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987. Compellingly making the case for maternal health, his film Why Did Mrs. X Die? has been widely used by teaching institutions around the world to highlight and address the high rate of maternal deaths in developing countries. Similarly, his teaching video Road to Maternal Health helped new medical students and doctors around the world understand the importance of maternal health.

As a member of EngenderHealth’s Board of Directors for several years, Dr. Fathalla gave thoughtful and insightful guidance and strengthened our capabilities as an organization. EngenderHealth extends its heartiest congratulations to Dr. Fathalla for this well-deserved recognition.