ON POPULATION FUND ANNIVERSARY, KOFI ANNAN SAYS WORK WILL CONTINUE ON ISSUE WITH "INDIVIDUAL, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL REPERCUSSIONS"

Press Release
SG/SM/7196
POP/743

ON POPULATION FUND ANNIVERSARY, KOFI ANNAN SAYS WORK WILL CONTINUE ON ISSUE WITH ‘INDIVIDUAL, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL REPERCUSSIONS’

Following are the remarks to the General Assembly of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which were delivered today on his behalf by UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik:

Thirty years ago, my predecessor U Thant transferred a small trust fund to the new United Nations Development Programme. A small group of donors provided a small amount of money for the new fund's operations. Such were the modest beginnings of what we know today as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- one of the United Nations' leading success stories of the last half-century.

Many of you will recall how delicate and sensitive population issues were in the 1960s. It was hard to agree even on a basis for discussion. Of course, the United Nations Population Division had been in existence since 1945. But there was great controversy over whether the United Nations should take a leading part in action on population; and if so, what it should do.

Controversy may have abated only somewhat since then. But 30 years have also brought a long record of achievement. That success has been built on three pillars: good information; good programmes and good understanding.

When UNFPA started work, most developing countries had only rudimentary systems for collecting and analysing population data as a basis for policy. The UNFPA has worked with the Population Division and the Statistical Unit of the United Nations to build national statistical offices, take censuses, make projections and disseminate reliable data. This has meant significant increases in national capacities to plan ahead, to incorporate population policies into development planning and to take sound economic and social decisions.

The UNFPA has also been a close partner in helping developing countries put in place effective programmes for voluntary family planning and integrated reproductive health programmes. When coupled with economic growth, improved education for women and girls and other factors, the result has been a decline in the average number of children per family from six to

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three during the 30 years of UNFPA's efforts. This, in turn, has meant better care for children; more choices for women; decreased pressure on the environment; slower, more balanced population growth and better living standards in general.

And then of course there was the breakthrough at Cairo: the historic consensus reached at the International Conference on Population and Development five years ago on the global need for slower population growth overall, on the national right to sovereign decision-making and on the individual right to reproductive health. The special session of the General Assembly just four months ago showed that Member States remain committed to the Cairo Programme of Action. We must build on this political will.

The success of UNFPA is also a success for United Nations process: the painstaking work of debating proposals, airing differences and, finally, achieving political consensus. This is the harmonizing role of the United Nations as envisaged in its founding Charter. Combined with our operational programmes, it is the path of real progress.

All Member States, and all parts of the United Nations system, have contributed. The UNFPA has been very effective in forming alliances within and outside the United Nations system; this has led to greater cohesion and better use of resources. The UNFPA was also quick to realize the indispensable role of civil society, and has worked closely with non- governmental organizations, north and south, as well as with the private sector.

I wish I could say that all problems have been solved, but you know as well as I do that there is one area where performance has been lacking. If we could mobilize the resources envisaged at Cairo, we would be in a much better position to attain the progress we seek.

Life would be unrecognizable without difficulties to overcome. So we shall continue our work on an issue that has individual, national and global repercussions. We shall persist in our struggle for the development of nations and the human rights of people. And we shall continue looking to UNFPA for its renowned leadership, advocacy and programmes.

In that spirit, I would like to salute UNFPA, its dynamic Executive Director, Dr. Nafis Sadik, her predecessor the late Rafael Salas, and UNFPA staff all over the world, for the great service they have rendered humankind. Thank you very much.

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