The UN’s sexual and reproductive well being company, UNFPA, introduced on Wednesday that the person award will go to Professor Serigne Magueye Gueye of Senegal, whereas the institutional prize can be offered to the Fondation Bonne Motion Umugiraneza of Burundi.
The annual award recognises excellent contributions to breakthroughs which enhance reproductive well being and resolve inhabitants growth-related challenges dealing with communities on the bottom.
For many years, Professor Gueye has handled ladies residing with obstetric fistula, a devastating however largely preventable childbirth harm that may depart survivors incontinent, remoted and rejected by their households and communities.
Alongside performing life-changing surgical procedure, he has skilled surgeons from greater than 45 international locations throughout sub-Saharan Africaserving to develop entry to specialist care all through the area.
Dedication to dignity
Chatting with UN InformationProfessor Gueye stated stopping new circumstances stays the best problem. He referred to as for stronger well being methods and common entry to emergency obstetric care, together with well timed caesarean sections, saying these are important if obstetric fistula is to be eradicated by 2030.
“Strengthening well being methods usually, scaling up emergency obstetric care, to me is the important thing to get rid of fistula,” he stated.
He additionally burdened that therapy doesn’t finish with surgical procedure. Communities, he stated, have an important function in figuring out ladies who typically stay hidden due to group stigma, supporting them by therapy and serving to them rebuild their lives by social and financial reintegration.
Professor Gueye’s dedication extends past the working theatre. To enhance entry to healthcare for underserved communities, he reworked his own residence into the Aristide Mensah Well being Middle in Yeumbeul, on the outskirts of Dakar, and has lengthy championed higher consciousness of obstetric fistula throughout West Africa.
Reflecting on receiving the award, he described it as a recognition of the many individuals who had supported his work through the years quite than a person achievement.
“I do not take it as private recognition. To me, it’s collective work,” he instructed UN Informationincluding that the honour encourages him to proceed giving again to uncared for and underserved communities.
He additionally had a message for younger well being professionals, urging them to develop their expertise with humility and resilience whereas reaching past city hospitals to serve distant populations the place healthcare is usually scarce.
Hearken to the complete interview right here:
On the ceremony at UN Headquarters, in a message delivered by UNFPA’s Deputy Government Director Diene Keita, Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres stated demographic shifts have been reshaping the world and required a collective response, “notably as they affect progress in the direction of reaching the Sustainable Growth Objectives and implementing the Pact for the Future”.
“To achieve true demographic resilience, we should put the rights, dignity and well-being of all folks on the coronary heart of our growth efforts,” he stated. ‘This isn’t only a matter of coverage, but additionally an ethical crucial”, Mr. Guterres stated in his message.
Congratulating the laureates, the Secretary-Normal praised Professor Gueye’s “medical excellence and humanitarian dedication” and the Burundian basis’s work to enhance maternal well being and construct native capability.
Talking on the ceremony, Professor Gueye stated the award was the “recognition of the collective effort of constructing well being the inspiration of our societies”, accepting it “on behalf of all of those that assume {that a} really resilient inhabitants is a inhabitants that has well being, autonomy and dignity”.
Professor Serigne Gueye, Head of Urology on the Grand Yoff Normal Hospital in Senegal, 2026 UN Inhabitants Award laureate.
All through his acceptance speech, Professor Gueye recounted the tales of ladies whose lives had been reworked by therapy, underscoring that each operation represents excess of a surgical process. “Behind every operation, there’s a story,” he stated, including that the true measure of success is giving ladies “again their lives” and providing sufferers in uncared for and distant communities a second likelihood to regain their well being, dignity and livelihoods.
Increasing entry to well being care in Burundi
The Fondation Bonne Motion Umugiraneza works to develop entry to healthcare, schooling and social help for susceptible ladies, kids and households throughout Burundi. In 2022, it opened the Polyclinique Umugiraneza in Gitega Province, bringing specialist providers, together with paediatrics, emergency care and fertility therapy, nearer to rural communities. The inspiration additionally helps care for girls residing with obstetric fistula, life-saving surgical procedure for kids with congenital situations and providers for survivors of gender-based violence.
Talking on the ceremony, Burundi’s First Woman, Angeline Ndayishimiye, who leads the Bonne Motion Umugiraneza Basis, stated that receiving this recognition from the United Nations was “each a privilege and a accountability.”
First Woman Angeline Ndayishimiye of Burundi, founding father of the Fondation Bonne Motion Umugiraneza, speaks on the 2026 United Nations Inhabitants Award Ceremony.
“It evokes us to pursue our mission to even higher willpower”, she added.
Established by the UN Normal Meeting in 1981, the United Nations Inhabitants Award honours people and establishments for excellent contributions to inhabitants and reproductive well being. This 12 months marks the forty first presentation of the award.
