POLITICAL WILL, RESOURCES NEEDED TO CONTINUE PROGRESS IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, HAGUE FORUM TOLD
Press Release
POP/700
POLITICAL WILL, RESOURCES NEEDED TO CONTINUE PROGRESS IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, HAGUE FORUM TOLD
19990209 THE HAGUE, 9 February (UNFPA) -- Reproductive health services are being improved around the world, but more resources are needed to expand access to services, especially for the poor, delegates to the Hague Forum for the operational review of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action were told yesterday afternoon.The five-day forum, a review of progress in carrying out the action plan agreed to at the 1994 ICPD in Cairo, continued with statements from officials from governments, United Nations agencies and a representative of the European Union.
Also during the afternoon session, the forum elected its bureau of a president and 14 vice-presidents representing the regions of the world. And, in a panel discussion, heads of four United Nations agencies affirmed their commitment to the goals of the ICPD. One, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) pledged to step up her agency's efforts to promote reproductive health care around the world.
Organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 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 meeting -- officially 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 -- is examining countries' achievements in carrying out the Cairo agreement, identifying constraints to be overcome and priorities in further implementation efforts.
Speaking for the European Union as the general debate started Monday afternoon, Cornelie Sonntag-Wolgast of Germany said that efforts should be strengthened to get developed countries to meet the agreed target of 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) of countries for official development assistance (ODA). She also called for an increase in the share of ODA devoted to population assistance, in accordance with the scope and scale of activities required to implement the ICPD Programme of Action.
The Union recognizes the progress that has been made in providing reproductive health and family planning services, Ms. Sonntag-Wolgast said. She strongly underlined the need to increase efforts to provide good-quality
services. Poor people should get access to health-care services and products, especially commodities that provide effective protection against unwanted pregnancy and infection. Subsidies and social marketing should be used to improve such access.
It would be useful to designate an appropriate United Nations agency as task manager or "global champion" for advocacy and coordination to ensure the availability of reproductive health commodities. A similar global champion should be designated for maternal health and safe motherhood, she added.
Also speaking on the financing of ICPD commitments, Tadashi Ikeda, Japan's ambassador to the Netherlands, said his country has been strengthening its contributions to help developing countries implement the Programme of Action. In that context, it launched the Global Issues Initiative on Population and AIDS in 1994. Japan, he said, has been the largest donor to the UNFPA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation since 1986.
Looking at the issues at home, Mr. Ikeda said that Japan was dealing with a rapidly ageing population and the trend towards fewer children. A 1997 survey in the country has predicted that the proportion of the population above the age of 65 will reach 25 per cent in 2015 and 32 per cent in 2050.
Mohammed Amanullah, the State Minister for Health and Family of Bangladesh, said that his country's National Plan of Action includes programmes on poverty eradication, women's equality and empowerment, and reproductive health. The Government has made gender a top priority, adopting a National Women Development Policy and implementing one of the largest secondary school stipend programmes for girls in South Asia. Also, about 10 million women are benefiting from micro- credit schemes. Practical measures are being taken to eliminate violence against women, he added. A quota for women in public sector employment has been introduced, including a 60 per cent quota for women as primary school teachers.
Last July, Mr. Amanullah continued, Bangladesh launched a Health and Population Sector Programme to provide a one stop, full range of essential reproductive health, family planning and child health services through an integrated delivery mechanism. The emphasis is on providing client-centred services, reaching vulnerable women and children, and reducing maternal and infant mortality. Tin Yee, Director General of Myanmar's Population Department, added another dimension to the debate, raising the issue of food security. Given the importance of food to growing populations, he said, the Hague Forum should be called the Humanitarian Forum. Food security should be the utmost concern of a world that would have to feed more 6 billion people by the year 2000. Myanmar, he said, has vast stretches of land suitable for cultivation and the potential to produce five times as much food as its current consumption; it could help increase the world's food production if political barriers were removed.
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Michel Moussa, Lebanon's Minister for Social Affairs, said that the country's fertility and mortality rates have fallen considerably in the last couple of decades. On average, women now have fewer than three children, while infant mortality is less than 28 per thousand live births. As a result, population growth has dropped below 1.7 per cent a year.
Despite its achievements, he said, Lebanon still faces some social problems. The civil war left in its wake a large number of displaced persons, about 40 per cent of whom have returned to their homes. The Government is helping the others return, he said, and also trying to repatriate its citizens living abroad.
Nassoro W. Malocho, Minister of State for the Planning Commission in the President's Office, United Republic of Tanzania, said two constraints hampered its ability to implement the Cairo agenda: the more than 700,000 refugees who have flooded the north-western parts of the United Republic of Tanzania; and the country's large external debt, which exceeds $8 billion. Despite those problems, he said, his country has made some progress along the lines proposed by the Cairo Conference. For example, it has reserved special seats for women in decision-making bodies, starting from the village to the national level. Women are guaranteed 15 per cent of the seats in Parliament and 25 per cent of those in local government councils, he said.
Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said prevention programmes had helped reduce HIV infection rates in a number of countries, including Brazil, Senegal, Thailand, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda. Despite this progress, there is also "news so devastating that few in this room could have predicted or imagined it even five years ago": over 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide, and, in over 30 countries, infection rates have doubled in the past three years.
The long-term solution is to develop an effective vaccine. But even without one, it is possible to reduce the rate of infections among young people by 25 per cent over the next five years. "This does not require new breakthroughs in technology, but rather new breakthroughs in political will", leading to increased funding for prevention programmes.
Also in the afternoon, Mr. Piot was part of a panel discussion of the heads of four United Nations agencies. In that discussion, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Nafis Sadik said that a series of global conferences in the 1990s had established that social issues require investments. She called on the activists working to promote the ICPD agenda to persuade political leaders to give social programmes the priority they deserve. Issues such as the transmission of HIV/AIDS to ever-younger girls through sexual violence should be addressed more openly. The rights and health of every young person should be protected and promoted, she added.
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Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the WHO, declared her intention to increase WHO's contribution to reproductive health across the world. It has taken a long time to discuss reproductive health issues openly because these are personal matters and also sometimes due to some cultural taboos. However, since Cairo, they are being discussed openly, and the WHO will speak openly about them, she said.
The issues of maternal health and adolescent sexual and reproductive health demand urgent attention, the Director-General continued. In maternal health, there has been too little progress, especially in Africa where one woman in 16 may die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Pregnant women need access to health care and facilities. Progress has been lacking in this regard because solutions have been developed in piecemeal methods.
One in 20 adolescents contracts a sexually transmitted disease, she said. Evidence from all parts of the world shows that proper education helps prevent unwanted pregnancies and diseases. The WHO will place reproductive health in an important position in its scheme of work across the world, she said.
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that close to 1 billion people, two thirds of them female, will enter the next century illiterate, an appalling figure in the age of computers. Of the 250 million children engaged in child labour, many girls are invisible, since they work in the home. Investment in the education of girls and women is the best investment advice that can be given, since it will reduce maternal mortality and other social problems that could emerge later, she said.
Right at the beginning of the afternoon session, the reports of the parliamentarians', NGO and Youth forums held prior to the Hague Forum were presented to delegates.
The Hague Forum also adopted its agenda, rules of procedure and elected its bureau. The President, Nicolas Biegman of the Netherlands, was elected yesterday. The Vice-Presidents are: from Africa -- Aicha Belarb (Morocco), Mr. Sall (Senegal) and Gerald Sendaula (Uganda); from Asia and the Pacific -- Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), who is also the Chairman of the Main Committee), Kiyotaka Akasaka (Japan) and Datin Paduka hajah Zaleha binti Ismail (Malaysia); from Latin America and the Caribbean -- Elsa Berquo (Brazil), Rudolph Collins (Guyana) and Alfonso Tuiran (Mexico); from the Eastern European States Group -- Teodor Chernev (Bulgaria), Jerzy Z. Holzer (Poland) and Zoreslava Shkiryav-Nyzhnyk (Ukraine); from the Western Europe and Other States Group -- Rosa-Anna Weiss (Austria) and Margaret Pollack (United States).
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Also yesterday afternoon, the Forum's Main Committee began its discussion on the first of five themes: creating an enabling environment for further implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. Other themes to be discussed in the remaining days are: reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, and reproductive rights; gender equality, equity and empowerment of women; strengthening partnerships; and resource flows and financing for implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.
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 General Assembly special session. The Commission will consider a draft report from the Secretary-General, including recommendations for further action. The General Assembly (in resolution 52/188) has agreed that there will be no renegotiation of the ICPD agreements.
For more information contact,
In the Hague: Corrie Shanahan (email: shanahan@unfpa.org), Abubakar Dungus (email: dungus@unfpa.org), William A. Ryan (email: ryan@unfpa.org); telephone: +31-70-306-5716/5717/5719; fax: +31-70-306-5737/5738.
In New York: Brian Kelly (email: kelly@unfpa.org); telephone: (212) 297-5023; fax: (212) 557-6416
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