HILLARY CLINTON AFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAMMES

Press Release
POP/701

HILLARY CLINTON AFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR INTERNATIONAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAMMES

THE HAGUE, 9 February (UNFPA) -- "When 600,000 women still die every year due to pregnancy-related causes, this is no time to cut back on our commitment to family planning", United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton declared today at a global meeting on population and development.

Ms. Clinton was addressing The Hague Forum, a five-day review of progress in carrying out the action plan agreed to at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

The Forum also heard statements from representatives of a number of States and international organizations, and continued to discuss key issues in the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

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.

At the ICPD, Ms. Clinton said, "the world agreed that smaller families and slower population growth are created by choice and opportunities, not coercion and controls". International experience since the 1994 Conference has confirmed the validity of this approach, she stated. She expressed the hope that, by the year 2015, access to reproductive heath and family planning services and information will be available to all, as the ICPD called for, and that the human rights of girls and women will be respected all over the world.

Supporters of the ICPD Programme of Action should strive to give poor women worldwide the same access to reproductive health services and information that better-off women have, she said. Adequate family planning and reproductive health services would, among other things, reduce the number of illegal and unsafe abortions. She also called for increased spending on the education of

women. No nation, she said, can move forward when a large share of its women are illiterate and impoverished.

"Government has no place in personal decisions about whether to bring a child into the world", the First Lady stated. Women have suffered and died "because governments were making the decisions women themselves should have made".

In the United States' proposed budget for fiscal year 2000, Ms. Clinton reported, "the President has proposed a $25 million voluntary contribution to the UNFPA. I hope our Congress will support that request".

"Restoration of United States funding for the UNFPA would send a strong signal that the United States continues to support the ICPD Programme of Action", she added.

After Ms. Clinton spoke, the formal plenary session continued. First to speak was the representative of China, Zhang Yuqin, Vice-Minister of the State Family Planning Commission. She reported that in 1996, her Government decided to integrate population, economic growth, environmental protection and the sustainable use of resources into the national development strategy.

In 1995, Ms. Zhang said, the State Family Planning Commission decided to address population issues in a comprehensive manner, to move from administrative- oriented approach to a service-oriented one, and to oppose all forms of coercion. Pilot projects that aim to promote informed choice and integrate family planning into broader reproductive health services have been introduced in more than 300 counties across China.

Despite its achievements, she continued, China faces several challenges. Its population of 1.2 billion increases by 13 million annually, exerting great pressure on the country's social and economic development. Traditional discriminatory attitudes towards women have not been eradicated. A lack of resources hinders the training of service providers and the provision of reproductive health services. New problems, such as floating populations and unemployment arising from the shift to a market economy, also have to be addressed. Social security needs to be improved to meet the needs of an ageing population, she added.

Ismail Sallam, Egypt's Minister of Health and Population, said that his country has increased access to reproductive health services by building 350 new women's health units in the rural areas and upgrading 1,300 others. The Ministry of Health has provided 320 mobile clinics to all parts of the country and supplied equipment to non-governmental organizations' clinics to ensure the quality of services. To reduce maternal mortality, the Ministry has also provided ambulances and upgraded maternity hospitals.

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Many challenges remain, Mr. Sallam continued. Public awareness of the need to eliminate female genital mutilation must be increased. Illiteracy among women must be reduced, and more women need antenatal care. To tackle those challenges, his Ministry is training doctors in family medicine, introducing a health insurance scheme which will provide health care to poor clients, and setting up an information system for all villages to gather data which will be used to design programmes that can meet existing needs.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland pledged that the WHO will establish stronger partnerships with the international community to implement programmes in the field of population and development. She drew attention to the 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths every year. Women should have access to skilled assistance during childbirth and should be able to reach help centres. The methods to prevent deaths are simple and inexpensive, so there is no excuse not to act, she declared.

Rodolfo Tuiran, Secretary-General of the National Population Council of Mexico, said that international donors should reaffirm the financial pledges made at the ICPD by making available the financial resources needed to help carry out the Programme of Action.

Maria Luisa Vera of Peru said that since 1994 her Government has extended reproductive health programmes to wider areas of the country and is making efforts to grant women greater access to education and the labour market. The provision of free family planning services has increased demand for services. She said the Government is working to ensure free and informed choice, and, in response to criticism by women's groups, has established new rules to ensure that contraceptive use is voluntary.

Begum Sayda Abida Hussain, Pakistan's Minister for Population Welfare and Science and Technology, called on donors to increase support for ICPD implementation. Meeting the demand for reproductive health services; reducing maternal, infant and child mortality; and promoting gender equality are high priorities of her Government, she said.

Since the Cairo Conference, she said, the age of marriage has increased, and contraceptive prevalence has gone up from 2 per cent in the early 1990s to about 27 per cent in 1998. This has contributed to a reduction of the population growth rate from 2.6 to 2.3 per cent.

The Government of Pakistan has developed a new population and development policy and is working to improve the education and status of women, lower fertility, increase contraceptive prevalence, and reduce infant and maternal mortality. It is expanding reproductive health services in the rural and poor urban areas through community-based organizations. Some 50,000 women workers now provide counselling and other services to women at their doorsteps.

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Also on Tuesday, the Forum's Main Committee began to discuss two more of the meeting's five themes: reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, and reproductive rights; and gender equality, equity and empowerment of women. Still to be taken up are: 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 has agreed that there will be no renegotiation of the ICPD agreements.

For further information, contact, in The Hague, Corrie Shanahan, e-mail: shanahan@unfpa.org; Abubakar Dungus, e-mail: dungus@unfpa.org; or William A. Ryan, e-mail: ryanw@unfpa.org, tel. +31-70-306-5716/5717/5719, fax +31-70-306-5737/5738. In New York, contact Brian Kelly, e-mail: kelly@unfpa.org, tel. (212) 297-5023, fax (212) 557-6416.

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