Nafis Sadik

Dr. (Mrs.) Nafis Sadik is the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General, and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. She is also a member of the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Dr. Sadik previously held the post of Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from 1987-2000, with the rank of Under-Secretary-General, and was the first woman to head one of the UN’s major voluntarily-funded programmes.

Dr. Sadik is a dynamic leader in the field of international maternal and child health issues, as well as reproductive and sexual health. She serves as a Commissioner of the Global Commission on International Migration, and as a Board member of the Foundation for Human Development, the UN Foundation, the Asia Society, the South Asian Commission on the Asian Challenge and several other international and national foundations and universities.

A national of Pakistan, Dr. Sadik was born in Jaunpur, India. Her professional career began as a physician and was Pakistan’s Director General of the Central Family Planning Council. She was educated at Loreto College (India) and received her medical degree from Dow College (Karachi, Pakistan). She is the author of numerous publications in the areas of reproductive health and family, population and development, women, and gender and development.