U.S. OFFICIAL'S REMARKS AT UNFPA'S REPORT ON WORLD POPULATION

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Remarks at the Launch of UNFPA's State of the World Population Report
Remarks
Anne C. Richard
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
Woodrow Wilson Center
Washington, DC
November 18, 2014

Thank you, Roger-Mark. As you noted, my bureau supports UNFPA’s work to increase access to reproductive health services and prevent and respond to gender-based violence throughout the world.

For this reason, I am very pleased to join you all for today’s launch of the 2014 State of the World Population Report on “The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth, and the Transformation of the Future.”

As this report points out, our hopes for peace and prosperity depend on what happens to this, the largest generation of young people in human history.

But as it cautions, many of them struggle against almost overwhelming odds. In some countries, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than to complete her education.

The vast majority of young people, nine in 10, live in less developed countries –where poverty is most prevalent and healthcare and schooling hardest to come by. And scarce resources are just one problem.

This report notes that young people often face additional hurdles, such as laws and social norms that can keep them from receiving reproductive health information and services – services they urgently need – to preserve their options, pursue their future goals, and even save their own lives.

For example, while millions of women have an unmet need for contraception, it is married adolescent girls, ages 15 to 19, whose unmet need is the greatest of all. They are only about a third as likely to use contraceptives as married women over 30. Many of these girls have no say in the matter. Unmarried adolescents also struggle to get information that could help them avoid early pregnancy or HIV. Health care workers or families may be hostile or judgmental, and laws may require young people to get parental consent to obtain family planning information or services.

The consequences of this unmet need can be grave. Among 15 to 19 year-old girls in low and middle-income countries, complications from pregnancy and unsafe abortions are a leading cause of death. And while HIV fatalities for other age groups are falling, among adolescents, they are rising.

What is encouraging – and the report makes this clear – is that we can solve this. The report recommends a number of promising interventions – steps the Obama Administration fully supports. They are:

Stopping early and forced marriage and preventing adolescent pregnancies
Strengthening sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights among young people, including adolescents
Preventing and addressing sexual and gender-based violence
Discouraging harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation
Promoting equal education for girls
Improving young people’s prospects for finding good jobs.
There are no painful tradeoffs here. These interventions are mutually reinforcing – and create a virtuous cycle.

More education, less child marriage and gender-based violence, delayed childbearing, healthier kids, stronger economic growth, gender equality, and expanded opportunity all go together.

That is one reason why the U.S. government supports young people’s reproductive rights, youth-friendly, integrated sexual and reproductive health services, and age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education. For example, USAID has been working in countries across the globe to meet adolescent health needs through its “Youth in Development” policy.

And why the Obama Administration has devoted more than $20 million to Secretary Kerry’s signature “Safe from the Start” initiative. Its aim is to stop gender based violence in emergencies. And, as a part of our PEPFAR HIV programs, we have reached over 114,000 survivors with post-rape care over the past four years.

And we are not alone. The vast majority of governments have lined up to support these types of policies – and the goals set forth in international consensus documents starting with the Program of Action that emerged from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Many have also passed laws to protect the health and rights of young people. But as this report demonstrates, that may not be enough.

For example, there is ample evidence that early and forced marriage is hazardous for girls, exposing them to dangerous pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, and often trapping them and their children in poverty. And almost all countries have established some legal minimum age at marriage. Yet one in nine girls in developing countries gets married before she turns 15. Some child brides are as young as eight or nine.

This report points to one important reason for this. Often, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab States and South Asia, laws against early marriage are not enforced. For example, India has criminalized marriage for girls under 18, but in 2010 only 11 people were actually convicted of violating this law.

This report can help close the gap between the principles enshrined in our international pledges, and what young people experience in their daily lives. It can help laws, enforcement, and programs catch up with intentions. It shows how important it is to understand what holds young people back, not only in theory but in practice, and to give them a voice in shaping solutions.

We all know that young people are the future. Thanks to UNFPA, we now know just how much is at stake. Not only the risks of failure, but the enormous benefits within reach with the right mix of enlightened policies and effective programs. Young people deserve the chance to pursue their dreams and to thrive. As this report shows very clearly, by helping youth secure their future, we can also secure ours.

THE WORLD OF MICRO-LOCOMOTION

FROM:  NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Microorganisms: Studying the mechanics of their locomotion

Research has potential for improvements in treating diseases and reproductive health and creating new drug delivery systems

Bacteria often must swim through intricate environments in the human body to get where they need to go. How they do it is what fascinates Henry Fu.

"A microbiologist might look at the biology, or biochemical pathways," says Fu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. "I am focused on the mechanics, rather than the biology."

Fu's goal is to understand the locomotion of bacteria and other microorganisms, such as sperm and protists, when they swim through such complex substances as mucus or bodily tissues. While both do contain fluid, they are more complicated than water, and bacteria almost certainly need different forces to navigate through them.

"People have tried to understand how they swim through regular water for a very long time, probably 50 or 60 years, but I want to know how this swimming is modified when they are swimming through things more complicated than water, like mucus," says the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientist. "Mucus is more viscous and has elastic properties. People think of mucous as smooth and continuous, but it has a network of fibers. I'm looking at how those fibers interact with the microorganisms."

His work potentially has broad implications in the treatment of diseases, for example, in figuring out ways to block infection by halting a bacterium's movement, even after it has entered the body, such as in Lyme disease, where "bacteria have to burrow through your tissues to get to your bloodstream," Fu says. "Understanding how they do that could be potentially important in order to stop them."

The research also could prove valuable in reproductive health, where "the properties of mucus can affect the likelihood of fertilization," Fu says. "This could be important in treating infertility or contraception, when you could make it easier--or harder--for the sperm to move."

Researchers also could apply mechanical engineering lessons learned toward creating new drug delivery systems, such as nano-robots that could carry chemotherapy through the body to target a growing tumor.

Microorganisms swim by moving parts of their bodies. For example, many swimming bacteria have a tail-like flagellum, which rotates like a propeller, pushing them forward, while some algae have two flagella that "they can use like breast stroke," Fu says. "Part of what I am looking at is how they translate this motion into propelling themselves in the direction of where they want to go."

His research mostly is theoretical--in the computer and with pen and paper--designing models of these swimmers to see how they behave in different environments, and with variations to their swimming motions.

"What we do as modeling is based on well-known fundamental physics laws," he explains. "We could tell the computer the shape of a bacterium and its swimming motion, or how it is rotating, and the properties of the material or fluid it is moving in. We then ask it how it will move, and how much force and energy it will take. We might also ask what might happen if the flagellum or cell had a different shape."

Fu is conducting his research under an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, which he received in June 2013. The award supports junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. He is receiving $400,003 over five years.

As part of the grant's educational component, he plans to create "Move Like a Microbe," a simulation of microscale microbial locomotion that "will bring the research to life for the public, and K-12 students, by providing a hands-on demonstration of how microorganisms are able to swim, and explain the consequences of microbial locomotion in everyday life," he says.

"Because microorganism are so small and because what they experience in a fluid environment is different from what we expect, this demonstration helps put them in the shoes of a microorganism," he adds. "They can control it, and make it swim, and feel the forces that the microorganism feels--and they will be learning about what it's like to try to swim when you're a tiny thing."

-- Marlene Cimons, National Science Foundation
Investigators
Henry Fu