As Executive Director of the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik was a dynamic leader and guiding force in the field of international maternal and child health, reproductive and sexual health, including family planning. On her appointment in 1987 as head of UNFPA, Dr. Sadik become the first woman ever selected in the history of the United Nations to lead one of its major voluntarily funded programmes. She champions the concept that women's health and well-being are best approached from the broader angle of reproductive and sexual health, within the social and economic context of women's lives. Dr. Sadik has consistently called attention to the importance of addressing the needs of women by involving women, as well as men.

Dr. Sadik holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from Dow Medical College in Karachi, Pakistan and has written articles for leading publications in the population and development field. Her contributions to improving the health of women and children of the global community has brought, and is continuing to bring her many international awards and honours. Among these, are honorary doctorates from universities such as Brown, Duke, John Hopkins, Wifred Laurier, the Philippines, Tulane, and most recently Nihon. In 1997 Dr. Sadik was awarded both the Martha May Eliot Award from the American Public Health Association, and the Paul Harris Fellow, by the Rotary Foundation.