WILLIAM H. GATES FOUNDATION GIVES $1.7 MILLION TO UN POPULATION FUND
Press Release
POP/669
WILLIAM H. GATES FOUNDATION GIVES $1.7 MILLION TO UN POPULATION FUND
19980422 NEW YORK, 22 April (UNFPA) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today announced the receipt of a three-year William H. Gates Foundation grant of $1.7 million for two population and development programmes."This is a very generous grant and a very wise investment for the future", said Dr. Nafis Sadik, UNFPA Executive Director. "It encourages and supports developing countries' efforts to create and improve their own population programmes. It is also deeply gratifying to see the private sector is playing such a significant part in an area that affects all development."
A UNFPA-supported initiative -- Partners in Population and Development - - will receive a grant totalling $1.5 million. The programme was established in 1994 to create country-to-country collaboration and exchange of technology and experience among Southern developing countries as called for in the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). From its inception, the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank have supported the Partners in Population Development initiative.
The $1.5 million from the William H. Gates Foundation will be made available over a three-year period beginning on 1 March to the 12 current member countries of Partners in Population and Development, including Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Pakistan. In addition, India has recently decided to join the Partners in Population. The UNFPA has programmes in all these countries.
The William H. Gates Foundation also gave a $200,000 grant to UNFPA for activities connected with a five-year review of progress (ICPD+5) made in implementing the 1994 ICPD Programme of Action and to make recommendations for the future.
As part of the ICPD+5 process, UNFPA is sponsoring a series of events including technical meetings and round-table discussions on selected subjects. The first of those discussions, a round table on adolescent reproductive health care, was held at the Ford Foundation from 14 to 17 April. There will also be an international forum on ICPD implementation to be held from 8 to 12 February 1999 in The Hague, The Netherlands.
- 2 - Press Release POP/669 22 April 1998
Forum participants will include governments, parliamentarians, academics, foundations, and representatives of civil society including non- governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector from more than 100 countries.
The ICPD+5 process will conclude with a special session of the United Nations General Assembly from 30 June to 2 July 1999, which will review and appraise the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. "UNFPA is deeply grateful to the William H. Gates Foundation and to Mr. Gates especially for supporting global efforts to implement the ICPD Programme of Action", said Dr. Sadik.
Dr. Sadik said that the Programme of Action calls for the earliest possible stabilization of world population through gender equality, the empowerment of women and by making universally available high quality and voluntary reproductive health-care services and sexual health measures.
Reproductive health-care services include pre- and post-natal care, assisted deliveries, a full range of family planning services, and screening for and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, she added.
The Programme of Action's sexual health measures calls for the elimination of female genital mutilation, an end to violence against women, care and counselling for victims of rape and other forms of violence against women, and allowing women to freely choose their marriage partners and the age at which they marry.
The William H. Gates Foundation was created in 1994 by Bill and Melinda Gates to support initiatives in areas that are of particular concern to them. Those broad fields include support for institutions of higher learning, local capital to campaigns, access to technology, and world health and population.
* *** *