HAGUE FORUM, 8-12 FEBRUARY, TO REVIEW PROGRESS SINCE LANDMARK CAIRO AGREEMENT ON POPULATION, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

1 February 1999

Press Release
POP/696

HAGUE FORUM, 8-12 FEBRUARY, TO REVIEW PROGRESS SINCE LANDMARK CAIRO AGREEMENT ON POPULATION, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

19990201 Countries to Identify Lessons Learned and Constraints in Implementing New Approach; United States First Lady, UN Deputy Secretary-General To Speak

NEW YORK, 1 February (UNFPA) -- At the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 governments endorsed a far-reaching programme linking population concerns to reproductive rights. That 1994 agreement sparked significant policy changes in many countries with regard to reproductive health care and women's empowerment.

Representatives of 180 countries will meet in The Hague next week to review this progress and identify priorities for further action.

The Hague Forum is part of ICPD+5, a series of review activities leading up to a high-level special session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York from 30 June to 2 July. The forum is being organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and hosted by the Government of the Netherlands. It will be held at the Netherlands Congress Centre from 8-12 February.

An NGO Forum and a Youth Forum on ICPD+5 will take place in the same venue on 6 and 7 February. The Dutch Parliament will host an international Forum of Parliamentarians on ICPD+5 from 4 to 6 February at The Ridderzaal.

Reports of these three meetings will be presented to The Hague Forum. Some 1,500 participants are expected for all four events.

United States' First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the keynote speaker when The Hague Forum opens on Monday morning, 8 February. Tonga's Prime Minister Baron Vaea, Ghanaian First Lady Dr. Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, and El Salvador's First Lady Elizabeth Aguirre de Calderón Sol will be keynote speakers that afternoon.

Vice-Presidents from Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gambia, Honduras and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and ministers from many other governments will be among those addressing the five-day plenary on lessons learned in implementing the ICPD Programme of Action.

Other plenary speakers, in addition to those from national delegations, will include: United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette; UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik; World Health Organization Director- General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland; and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot.

On 8 February, heads of United Nations organizations, including the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, will take part in a panel discussion on ICPD implementation, chaired by Ms. Fréchette; a press conference will follow.

The meeting, officially called the "The International Forum for the Operational Review and Appraisal of the Implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development", will examine countries' achievements in carrying out the Cairo agreement, identifying constraints to be overcome and priorities in further implementation efforts.

These findings will be summarized in a Forum Report and presented to the Commission on Population and Development when it meets from 24 to 31 March as the preparatory committee for the special session of the General Assembly. The Commission will consider a draft report from the Secretary-General, including recommendations for further implementation of the Programme of Action. The General Assembly, in resolution 52/188, has agreed that there will be no renegotiation of the ICPD agreements.

The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UNFPA are jointly coordinating the review process leading up to the special session.

The ICPD's ground-breaking 20-year Programme of Action stressed that population concerns are integral to any development strategy, and are closely linked to prospects for poverty alleviation and environmental protection. In a departure from previous population conferences, it focused on guaranteeing the reproductive rights of individual women and men, including the right to determine the size and spacing of their families and meeting their needs, rather than on achieving demographic targets. And it emphasized the need to improve the status of women and act to ensure gender equity and equality.

Adopting this approach, the Conference recognized, would lead to smaller, healthier families and slower global population growth.

The Cairo Conference called for universal access to comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care, including family planning by 2015. Other goals were universal primary education and to close the gender gap in education; and sharp reductions in infant, child and maternal mortality.

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At The Hague Forum, meeting in parallel to the plenary session, a Main Committee will consider five themes:

-- Creating an enabling environment for further implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action: This topic will cover changes in national policies and institutions aimed at addressing the inseparable issues of population dynamics, the environment, sustainable growth and development, education and gender equality. It will also address policy issues in the areas of ageing, migration and urbanization, and data systems needs for monitoring population programmes.

-- Reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, and reproductive rights: This topic will deal with the challenges of integrating family planning and other reproductive health programmes and improving the quality of care. It will analyse efforts to ensure reproductive rights, to reduce maternal and child mortality and promote safe motherhood, to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, and to eliminate harmful practices like female genital mutilation. The needs of youth and adolescents will be addressed, along with the provision of reproductive health services for refugees and others in emergency situations.

-- Gender equality, equity and empowerment of women: This will address legal and social reforms and advocacy initiatives in the area of women's rights. Issues will include the health, nutrition and education needs of girls; power relationships between men and women; gender-based violence; male participation in reproductive health programmes; and male responsibility for reproductive and sexual behaviour.

-- Strengthening partnerships: The ICPD emphasized the importance of collaboration among governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), parliamentary groups, religious and cultural leaders, the private sector and the United Nations system. This discussion will consider how these partner groups can play a stronger role in promoting and advocating ICPD objectives.

-- Resource flows and financing for implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action: The meeting will consider resource requirements and possible funding through the public sector, as well as NGOs, the private sector and other sources. The ICPD estimated the costs of meeting its goals with regard to reproductive health and other population activities: $17 billion per year in 2000, rising to $21.7 billion by 2015; developing countries would bear two thirds of these costs, with the other third to be provided by external donors. Current international assistance for population programmes is around $2 billion, well below the $5.7 billion needed annually by 2000 under this formula.

As input to these discussions, the UNFPA has produced a background paper which draws upon a variety of review activities undertaken over the past year:

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-- A series of round-table meetings organized by the UNFPA during 1998 on: "Adolescent sexual and reproductive health" (14-17 April, New York); "Reproductive rights and implementation of reproductive health programmes, women's empowerment, male involvement and human rights" (22-25 June, Kampala, Uganda); and "Partnership with civil society in the implementation of the Programme of Action" (27-30 July, Dhaka, Bangladesh); and technical meetings on international migration and development, population and ageing, and reproductive health services in crisis situations;

-- Consultations organized by the United Nations regional commissions: Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) (24-27 March, Bangkok), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) (13-14 May, Aruba), Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) (22-25 September, Beirut), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) (23-25 September, Addis Ababa), and Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) (7-9 December, Budapest);

-- A global field inquiry conducted by the UNFPA in mid-1998 in which information was collected from 114 developing countries and countries with economies in transition through UNFPA field offices, and to which 18 donor countries also responded;

-- Progress reports on the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action from United Nations specialized agencies and other United Nations organizations; and

-- Various other reviews, including national case studies, conducted by international organizations, NGOs and academic institutions.

The UNFPA, a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly, assists developing countries to improve reproductive health and family planning services on the basis of individual choice, and to formulate population policies in support of sustainable development.

The UNFPA will provide daily coverage of The Hague Forum, as well as the preliminary meetings of parliamentarians, NGOs and youth, along with background information on its website, at www.unfpa.org. Information on media accreditation to the forum is at www.unfpa.org/ICPD/media.htm. A media seminar to brief journalists on the issues before the forum will be held on Saturday, 6 February, in the Netherlands Conference Centre, Mondrian Hall, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

For further information contact Corrie Shanahan, William A. Ryan and Abubakar Dungus at tel. (212) 297-5020, fax (212) 557-6416.

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