I mentioned the release of UNFPA's annual State of the World report in a previous post today about Rep. Carolyn Maloney's exciting announcement that the Obama administration will reinstate funding for the family planning agency, but the landmark report merits a post of its own.

In addition to the comprehensive assessment of countries' progress on the goals laid out at the International Conference on Population and Development, the report provides an illuminating account of the way power operates in societies, and the absolute necessity of gender-aware development planning. If women's perspectives are not integrated into development, the report explains, the project will often privilege male participants and fail to elevate women's status and fully utilize women as agents of change in their communities.

To the long-standing and oft-cited tension between universal human rights and local cultures and traditions, the report says, "Cultures are neither static nor monolithic…They adapt to new opportunities and challenges and evolving realities. What is seen as “the culture” may in fact be a viewpoint held by a small group of elites keen to hold onto their power and status." But the report acknowledges the vital importance of understanding cultural practices "not for validating the practice but for acknowledging its roots and providing a basis for dialogue and action." UNFPA has learned that female genital mutilation is often believed to make a woman feminine, more fertile, and/or less likely to harm a baby in childbirth. And this cultural knowledge has been essential to UNFPA's "cooperative strategy of finding culturally acceptable alternatives." 

In other words, the report is more a fascinating look into the interplay between power, culture, and development than a collection of statistics.  For a preview of its work, watch some of these very compelling videos:

UNFPA providing fistula repair in Bangladesh:

Women vote for a new Nepal: