PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS INCREASED SUPPORT FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAMMES, HAGUE FORUM HEARS
Press Release
POP/705
PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS INCREASED SUPPORT FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROGRAMMES, HAGUE FORUM HEARS
19990212 THE HAGUE, 12 February (UNFPA) -- The private sector is playing a growing role in support for reproductive health and population programmes, Julia Taft, United States' Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration told The Hague Forum Thursday.Foundations in the United States alone, she said, have more than doubled their contributions to such programmes since 1994, reaching more than $240 million this year. The United States Administration, for its part, hopes to assure funding of $25 million for UNFPA in fiscal year 2000 and is seeking $400 million for bilateral family planning and reproductive health programmes and nearly $170 million for HIV/AIDS and maternal health.
Ms. Taft was one of some 50 speakers in the general debate which continued for a fourth day at the forum, a review of progress in carrying out the actions agreed to at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. The forum's Main Committee concluded its consideration of substantive themes with a discussion on resource flows and financing for 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.
Also speaking in the plenary, Godfrey Simasiku, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Zambia -- a country at the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS crisis -- said that the socio-economic impact of the disease cannot be overstated, as it affects the most productive age groups of the population. HIV/AIDS has created a vast number of orphans, increased the number of cases of diseases such as tuberculosis and put grave demands on the health care system. AIDS continues to take many lives in Zambia, with prevalence rates at about 20 per cent among females aged 20-29.
"In Africa today and in Zambia, in particular, we are faced with a Third World War -- a war against poverty and disease", Mr. Simasiku said. The country lacks the productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods and basic needs. The poverty level has reached 70 per cent and the Government is trying to lower it to 50 per cent by the year 2004. Some 60 per cent of Zambia's export earnings are currently used to pay off debts, at the expense of the social sector. The country should be given debt relief to enable it to divert more resources for social programmes, he said.
Internal and international migration are having severe social, cultural and economic effects on Belize, said Myrtle Palacio, Chairperson of its National Committee for Families and Children. Literacy and numeracy have declined, and there is an overwhelming demand for housing from poor urban migrants from rural areas. The country also is suffering from a "brain drain" of out-migration. Belize, she said, is a country of migrants, with 25 per cent of its citizens foreign-born.
Belize also has the highest demographic and mortality rates among the English-speaking countries of the Latin American and Caribbean subregion, Ms. Palacio said. The Government has undertaken activities promoting gender equality and women's empowerment, and has integrated population into the development processes. In the gender area, the Government has introduced laws against sexual harassment and domestic violence. And on 10 February, the Government launched the Domestic Violence Project in Belize City.
Anika Rahman, of the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, a non-governmental organization based in the United States, said governments implement legal and policy measures to achieve women's rights. They need to build a culture and language of rights; develop indicators to monitor protection of rights; put women's rights into operation in many sectors of government, and ensure the political commitment that will provide the resources necessary to make the vision a reality.
Fred Fono, Minister Responsible for National Planning and Development of Solomon Islands, said his country faces distinct population problems. The population is scattered among small villages and islands dispersed over a vast ocean, with very high costs of transportation and service delivery. Illiteracy among women is high; there is a great disparity between the country's high population growth rate and low levels of employment and social service provision; and access to education is limited. The Government has integrated population into national economic development, and has also increased spending on education and health.
In November 1998, he continued, Solomon Islands and its Pacific neighbours met in Fiji to review the ICPD Programme of Action. They agreed that population issues can no longer be confined to one sector alone. Looking
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to the future, he said, Solomon Islands will form a National Population Council as stipulated in its National Population Policy.
Donald Buchanan, Minister of State in Jamaica's Ministry of Finance, said that a major new thrust of reproductive health programmes in his country is the provision of services to adolescents who have historically been marginalized by reproductive health programmes. Projects for adolescents have been developed with the help of UNFPA, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Family Health International. The Government is also developing a comprehensive policy on reproductive health, including adolescent reproductive health.
While working on the empowerment of women, Mr. Buchanan said, the Government is also concerned with the increasingly poor performance of males in Jamaican schools and the high level of male irresponsibility in reproductive health and in family and community life. As a result, the Government and NGOs have been incorporating males into their programmes in order to address the root causes of those problems. For example, an NGO, "Fathers Incorporated", has been created to instill male responsibility in the family and the society.
Jana Simanova, of the Czech Republic's Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, said life expectancy has grown steadily in her country. Between 1990 and 1997, it rose from 67.5 to 70.5 years for men and from 75.4 to 77.5 for women. As a result, the country now faces the problem of population ageing. The widespread use of contraception is regarded as one of the reasons for the postponement of marriages and childbirth, and abortions have been halved since 1989.
Ms. Simanova said that, in line with the ICPD Programme of Action, her Government will make modern contraception and family planning services available to everybody who wants them and ensure that reproductive health, family planning and sexual education become part of primary school curricula. Access to voluntary sterilization will be made available to all and the incidence of abortion will reach Western Europe's standards, she said.
Balla Musa Silla, Executive Director of Partners in Population and Development, described the work of his organization -- a collaborative effort among developing countries to share expertise in improving reproductive health and family planning services. Partners in Population and Development, launched at the Cairo conference, has grown to include 14 member countries from its original 10, he said.
Since its formation in 1994, Mr. Silla said, Partners has been involved with the East African Reproductive Health Network. In Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela, it has shared the expertise gained by the Colombian NGO Profamilia
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in reproductive health programmes for adolescents; the aim is to create services that promote safe sexual behaviour and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. It has also adapted Indonesia's family-centred approach to providing reproductive health information and services and will implement it in Senegal and Mali.
Findings from the meeting will be summarized by the secretariat in a Forum Report, which will be presented in plenary on Friday. The report will be a background document for the Commission on Population and Development when it meets from 24 to 31 March as the preparatory committee for the General Assembly special session.
For further information, contact in The Hague Corrie Shanahan (shanahan@unfpa.org), Abubakar Dungus, (dungus@unfpa.org), or William A. Ryan, (ryanw@unfpa.org), tel. +31 70-306-5716, fax: +31(70)-306-5737; in New York, contact Brian Kelly (kelly@unfpa.org.), tel. (212) 297-5023; fax (212) 557-6416.
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