Julia Bunting | |
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Nationality | British |
Occupation | Demographer |
Known for | Ninth president of the Population Council Director at the International Planned Parenthood Federation |
Julia Bunting is a British demographer who is the ninth president of the Population Council, since March 2015.[1] She currently works to build a body of research on how best to support young girls.[2]
During an exchange visit to rural areas of Tanzania, she saw firsthand great disparities in reproductive healthcare.[2]
Bunting is known for her work on reproductive and maternal health during her 12-year tenure at the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), where she oversaw the government's policies for international development on HIV/AIDS, maternal, newborn, and child health and rights, and population.[3] There, she campaigned to address maternal mortality as a tractable problem, and worked on the FP2020 pledge to grant access to contraceptives and family planning to 120 million girls and women in the world's poorest countries.[2] She helped develop the global quantitative goal of "120 by 20" at the London Summit on Family Planning in July 2012,[4] which she helped organize, along with a 2017 revival of the summit. The 2012 summit raised $2.6 billion.[5]
She also served as a director at the International Planned Parenthood Federation, as a Programme and Technical lead.[3]
Under her leadership, the Population Council-developed (in conjunction with pharmaceutical company TherapeuticsMD) contraceptive vaginal ring Annovera obtained FDA approval in 2018.[6] The device lasts a year and does not require refrigeration or regular clinic visits, making it well-suited for use in low-income countries. The Population Council also announced in 2018 that their contraceptive gel for men had entered phase two clinical trials,[7] specifically a skin-applied Nestorone/testosterone hormonal gel.[8]
In 2013, Julia was inducted as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for improving reproductive health in developing countries.[9]