EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO HELP BRING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE PROGRAMMES TO ASIA
Press Release
POP/633
EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO HELP BRING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE PROGRAMMES TO ASIA
19970203 NEW YORK, 30 January (UNFPA) -- The European Commission announced today it would fund a $31 million population programme to bring improved reproductive health care to selected countries in Asia.The initiative will be implemented over the next four years by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and executed by a number of European non-governmental organizations -- including the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, the Swedish Association for Sex Education and the World Population Foundation of The Netherlands -- in partnership with non-governmental organizations in recipient countries.
The first phase of the "European Union's Asian Initiative for Reproductive Health" is aimed at Asian countries including Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Nepal and Pakistan.
The initiative is the result of ongoing discussions among European Union institutions over the past three years on follow-up to the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994. For the UNFPA, the initiative represents one of the largest sums that the European Commission has committed to population programmes.
The ICPD's Programme of Action established a new international consensus on population programmes and made the provision of reproductive health care and special attention to the needs of women an international goal for health and development programmes. It will take an estimated $17 billion annually to implement the ICPD reproductive health and population programmes by the year 2000.
"This initiative is a very bold joint venture between UNFPA and the European Commission", said Dr. Nafis Sadik, UNFPA Executive Director, who was Secretary-General of the ICPD. "The Commission's initiative will help us implement the ICPD Programme of Action and move us closer to realizing the financial goals of the ICPD", she added.
According to the ICPD Programme of Action, developing countries themselves will have to come up with annually, on average, two thirds of the estimated $17 billion. The ICPD Programme also calls on donors to provide $5.7 billion annually by the year 2000, one third of the resources necessary for implementation, an increase from their previous one-fifth share.
- 2 - Press Release POP/633 3 February 1997
"While a number of industrial countries have significantly increased their support of reproductive health and population programmes since the ICPD, others have not yet done so. Achieving the reproductive health goals of Cairo will require further commitment on the part of the donor community", Dr. Sadik said.
She added that "official development assistance is at its lowest level in real terms since the mid-1980s and there is little enthusiasm for increases. Population is still an exception and population funding is still increasing in real terms, but not fast enough to meet ICPD goals. Given this financial climate, the European Commission initiative indicates the importance that governments give to the recommendations of the ICPD".
* *** *