POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION CONTINUES REVIEW OF CAIRO GOALS; SPEAKERS HIGHLIGHT GLOBALIZATION"S IMPACT, IMPROVED EDUCATION

Press Release
POP/760

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION CONTINUES REVIEW OF CAIRO GOALS; SPEAKERS HIGHLIGHT GLOBALIZATION’S IMPACT, IMPROVED EDUCATION

In the developing world, globalization had deepened the fault-lines, and the effects on marginal social groups worldwide had been wide-ranging, the representative of South Africa told the Commission on Population and Development this afternoon, as it continued a discussion on follow-up actions to the recommendations of the International Conference on Population and Development, held at Cairo in 1994.

The globalization process had triggered migration, diminished opportunities for women, increased prostitution and rapidly expanded the HIV/AIDS pandemic, he said. Unlike other variables of global integration, HIV/AIDS sneaked into societies without much warning, and was usually discovered too late. Its shocking impact had exposed the weaknesses in South African society and demonstrated that reproductive health, reproductive rights and family planning services had to be complemented by a legal and social framework that included the freedom for women to exercise reproductive choices.

Nigeria’s representative said better education of women had led to reduced fertility rates and more informed choices on issues including contraception and child spacing, producing a positive effect on economic development. Yet, sub- Saharan Africa was the only region that had experienced a decrease in funds for basic primary education, owing to the economic crises and debt-restructuring programmes of the 1980s. Decisive action should be taken to cancel the unsustainable debt overhang of developing countries to enable them to invest more resources in education.

A representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heralded the adoption last July, at the high-level plenary review on implementation of the Cairo outcome, of a resolution that established the goals of universal access to primary education by 2015, and the elimination of the gender gap in primary schooling by 2005. As the United Nations agency devoted to education, science, communication and culture, UNESCO would continue to play a catalytic role in mobilizing support for the goal of educating for a sustainable future.

Low education, poverty and the specific roles assigned to men and women had contributed to high levels of maternal mortality in the developing world, the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization said. Increased access to programmes to reduce maternal mortality alone might not reduce the incidence, as such programmes tended to miss crucial gender issues paramount to their success.

Population & Development Commission - 1a - Press Release POP/760 2nd Meeting (PM) 27 March 2000

In societies where women's access to land was granted only through her sons, for example, the pressure to bear children might outweigh any health concerns. Thus, such programmes should be complemented by interventions to change socio-cultural and economic factors, such as land tenure and inheritance practices.

Also today, the Commission elected two more Vice-Chairmen to its Bureau: Easton Williams (Jamaica); and Mohammad Ali Zarie Zare (Iran).

Statements were also made by the representatives of the Russian Federation, Jamaica, Algeria, Canada, Belarus, Italy and Iran. A representative of the World Health Organization also spoke.

The Commission on Population and Development will meet again at 10 a.m. Tuesday, 28 March, to begin its general debate on national experience in population matters: population, gender and development.

Population & Development Commission - 3 - Press Release POP/760 2nd Meeting (PM) 27 March 2000

Commission Work Programme

The Commission on Population and Development met this afternoon to continue its thirty-third session on the review and appraisal of implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. (For additional background, see Press Release POP/758, issued 24 March.)

Statements

IRINA ZPARSKAYA (Russian Federation) said the Secretary-General's report on world population monitoring was a balanced and well-conceived document. Of special importance to her country were the gender aspects of mortality and ageing, morbidity and mortality, and changes in the epidemiological situation. The report shed light on family traditions and trends and the use of contraception, the birth and mortality rates and HIV/AIDS, and internal and external migration flows. The report also highlighted the specific problems facing countries in transition. She shared the general approach outlined in the report and supported its conclusions, in particular regarding the need for a close link to the problems of population, gender and development.

She said she welcomed, in particular, the examination of the impact of new phenomena, such as globalization, on gender issues. Of important significance was the final document of the General Assembly's twenty-first special session, which had been a significant step forward by the international community to develop a global population agenda that included gender-related issues. The special session had devised a concerted approach to specific action for responding to new challenges. Much attention had been devoted to emerging problems, including those of transitional economies. Of particular significance had been the decision on the protection of women's rights, reproductive health and legislation which took into account the gender factor.

Among the objectives deserving special attention was the relationship between the observance of women's rights and human rights, and the enhancement of women's political, social and economic status, she said. Combining family functions with the active participation of women in economic and public life should also be emphasized. Women deserved equal representation in all spheres of political and public life and decision-making. Other areas of focus concerned the reproductive rights and reproductive health of women and men, safe motherhood and access to family planning services. She hoped the resolutions adopted this week would reflect the interests of all countries and promote action on implementing the Cairo outcome.

EASTON WILLIAMS (Jamaica) made several requests that he felt would serve to enhance the substance of the report of the Secretary-General on the monitoring of population programmes: gender and development (document E/CN.9/2000/4). In light of the recognition that women were sorely under-represented in political discussions and decision-making, he suggested that a brief discussion on the issue during the current session would serve to reinforce those findings.

He went on to say that the link between early childbearing and poverty should also be considered. That relationship had been well established and documented in many countries and was worthy of further in-depth discussion. Finally, he said that his delegation thought that that the report on financial flows (document E/CN.9/2000/5) was particularly well written and concise.

LILIAN ONOH (Nigeria), commenting on several reports before the Commission, said that her delegation welcomed the recognition given to the importance of education in addressing the issues of population, gender and development. One of the reports noted that the education of women had been shown to have effects on infant and child mortality that were greater than the effects of income, improved sanitation and modern sector employment combined. Better education of women in all societies had led to reduced fertility rates and more informed choices on certain issues, such as contraception and child spacing, as well as having had a positive effect on economic development.

It was with regret then, that she noted the effects of increased poverty caused by the structural adjustment programme adopted by many countries at the request of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Her delegation was in agreement with the Secretary-General’s concise report on world population monitoring, 2000: population, gender and development (document E/CN.9/2000/3) which noted that sub- Saharan Africa was the only region that had experienced a decrease in provisions for basic primary education because of the economic crises and debt restructuring programmes of the 1980s.

She said that until the mid-1980s, Nigeria had, in fact, made free universal primary education a cornerstone of its policies. With the stringent conditions imposed by the IMF, however, primary and secondary schools and universities began to introduce fees for many school activities which had led to a drop in enrolment and placed a greater financial burden on poor families. It was urgent, therefore, to take decisive action on the issue of cancelling the unsustainable debt overhang of developing countries and enable them to invest more resources in education.

She went on to say that the percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa was totally unacceptable. The long-term effect on the development of countries most affected by the pandemic could only be described as devastating. “There is a generation of orphans who will grow up with very little family support and education”, she said. It was unfortunate that the Secretary-General’s report made no mention of the restrictions placed on the availability of drugs that could enhance the lives of those suffering from the disease, as well as drugs that could prevent mother-to-child transmission.

She said that she disagreed with the statement in paragraph 62 of the report that local myths and traditions made African men gravitate towards younger women and thereby, accounted for an increase in transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV infection among younger girls. “It has been our observation”, she said, “that the preference of younger women by older men is a worldwide phenomenon that is as old as time”. The situation of younger girls involved with older men was simply a condition of certain economic circumstances. The increased incidence of HIV/AIDS was due to a lack of education.

Finally, she said that it was heartening to see that there was at least one area in which women had been given a natural advantage over men -– longevity. “On this particular issue and only this”, she said “we do not believe women want gender equality if it means losing the two or more extra years God has been kind enough to grant them. However, we do pray that men can catch up”.

JACQUES du GUERNY, Chief, Population Programme Service, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that gender was culturally ascribed through a system of social, economic, political and historic relations, which shaped gender and development interactions. In order to fully grasp the issue of gender relations, that broader system must be targeted. For example, maternal mortality was not only a reproductive health problem, as it was primarily associated with poverty and low education and the specific roles assigned to men and women in society. Poor quality and/or inaccessible health services were a factor, but not necessarily the only or most important one.

In many rural areas of the developing world, he said, increasing access to services might not have the desired effect on reducing the incidence of maternal mortality, he said. For example, in patrilineal systems, where women's access to land or other productive resources was granted only through her sons, the pressure to bear children in order to have sons might well outweigh any health consideration. Also, men were sometimes ignorant about the serious risks that could lead to maternal death. By targeting women only, programmes to reduce maternal mortality tended to miss crucial gender issues paramount to their success. Thus, the programmes should be complemented by interventions to change socio- cultural and economic factors, such as land tenure and inheritance practices.

Gender issues had been a central aspect of migration, she said. In the 1960s and 1970s, women had constituted the bulk of rural to urban migrants in Latin America, while men largely stayed back in agricultural production. Latin American women's participation in agricultural production, therefore, had been traditionally lower than in other developing regions. A typical household income strategy was to engage men in agriculture and women in domestic service in the cities. That had had a considerable impact on the age-sex composition of both rural and urban areas, and had a decisive impact on the fertility decline.

She said that the massive sex-specific migration flows that had characterized those decades in Latin America and currently taking place in other developing regions could not be understood without considering such issues as the excess labour supply in the rural areas, access to land, gender-biased land tenure patterns and the agrarian reform laws of that period. Overall, gender and population interactions could not be fully understood if they were treated in an isolated fashion from the system of social, economic, historic and political relations in which they were generated. The outside system of influence on gender was as important as the gender relations themselves in devising and implementing development interventions.

BENKHELIL RACHIDA (Algeria) said that the mid-course evaluation of Cairo +5 had been a milestone. The priority measures that had been highlighted had shown the close links between population and economic and social development. The progress achieved in demographic growth, as well as the obstacles encountered in access to education, health care and other basic services, had called for a more targeted approach that incorporated a gender equity perspective. Women and parity was of special importance, given the upcoming Beijing +5 review.

She said that future population programmes should better integrate a gender- specific approach. Reproductive health would remain a fundamental axis of population progress, as would the alarming levels of maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. Information and communication in that regard was supremely important, particularly for men and youth, in order to strengthen their decision-making in the area of procreation. Reproductive health and education and the fight against illiteracy were closely linked to the participation of women in every area of public life, not only as beneficiaries, but as activists. If the world truly wished to attain the goals set out at Cairo, however, it must mobilize the necessary funds, in accordance with the decisions taken there.

JACQUES BAN ZUYDAN (South Africa) said that, in bringing the Cairo Programme of Action into the new millennium, three themes should be emphasized: globalization; HIV/AIDS; and reproductive health. In the developing world, globalization, in its current form, had tended to sharpen and deepen societal fault lines. Marginal social groups worldwide had found themselves in even less competitive economic positions and had experienced increased difficulty playing an integrated role in society. The consequences on the poor and women living in poverty, including in rural areas, had been wide-ranging. The globalization process had triggered migration, diminishing opportunities for women, including girl children, prostitution for survival, and the rapid expansion of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

He said that there should be a population response to globalization that would ensure that the benefits of global economic integration were translated into opportunities for those who were historically excluded from economic participation. Collectively and individually, programmes should be undertaken to accelerate educational and development opportunities for all, especially for women and girl children. Legal frameworks that solidified gender equality should also be promoted, and open, non-exploitative economic opportunities should be explored. In addition, the devastating impact of disasters, including natural and human made, should be mitigated.

On HIV/AIDS, he said an approach should be developed that was based on the interrelationships between population, environment and development, and reflected the aspects of population that best described those relationships, such as population structure. The trend in southern Africa, and perhaps elsewhere as well, was that very specific groups, such as economically active age groups, had been most severely affected by the pandemic. Increasingly, women in those groups were becoming the victims of the disease, and carried the heaviest burden of AIDS- induced poverty. The effect of the structural impact of AIDS would be the devastation of the social and economic support systems in those societies that could least afford it.

Unlike other variables of global integration, HIV/AIDS sneaked into societies without much warning, and was usually discovered too late, he said. In South Africa, the trends associated with traditional population indicators could be deceptive. For example, its fertility trends were similar to those of rapidly developing societies where women enjoyed reasonable opportunities and an improved status. The shocking impact of HIV/AIDS had exposed the weaknesses in South African society. It demonstrated that reproductive health, reproductive rights and family planning services had to be complemented by a legal and social framework that included the freedom of women to exercise reproductive choices, education, poverty reduction and frameworks to eliminate vulnerability to natural and human- made disasters.

GINETTE LACHANCE (Canada) said that in Cairo and Beijing, it had been recognized that gender equality was fundamental to the achievement of human rights. Empowering women and girls was essential to sustainable development, and no society could reach those goals without taking into account women's reproductive and productive roles. Over the last decade, progress had been made in ensuring a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development between women and men. Women and girls, however, still faced discrimination in almost all sectors of life. The review of the Cairo outcome had demonstrated that women's reproductive and sexual health were still not adequately protected or addressed. Women had continued to experience high levels of poverty, and violence against them had persisted in all societies.

She said that both Conferences had recognized that the life situations of women and men were often different and that the impact of policies and programmes could only be effective if they took into account those differing realities. The integration of a gender perspective, therefore, was key to ensuring that the needs of women and girls were adequately addressed and that women were active participants in the development, implementation and monitoring of those activities. It had been the gender perspective that had raised the importance of the responsibilities of boys and men in those areas. The success of that strategy and its adequate monitoring required the development of sex- and age-disaggregated data and gender-relevant information.

Approximately 500,000 women died worldwide in 1998 from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, she said. The vast majority of those deaths could have been prevented if adequate resources and services had been available. Of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth, nearly 100 per cent had occurred in developing countries, where women were the most malnourished, poorly educated and lacked access to health services. Greater efforts must be devoted to improve the reliability of data. Meanwhile, the world community should address the root causes of those deaths through universal access to high-quality family planning information and reproductive health services.

Likewise, she said, the continuing low levels of education and the gender gap in Africa had been disturbing. There was an urgent need to increase education for women, girls and boys to levels that could affect fertility, contraceptive use and population growth. It was possible that the goals in support of the Cairo Programme of Action might not be reached without adequate financing. The family planning component of the "costed population package" had represented only 42 per cent of the total reported funds, instead of the 60 per cent agreed at Cairo. Education affected the ability to make informed reproductive choices, but implementation of those choices meant fully funding the core elements of the costed package. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) should continue careful monitoring of the financial flows and seek to clarify the tracking of financing to various aspects of the Cairo agenda.

Ms. GASYUK (Belarus) said that with the help of international assistance, the Programme had achieved certain successes, particularly in the areas of women’s rights, access to education and training, which had contributed to a decline in global indicators of mortality. There remained, however, the drastic need to step up international activity to resolve such problems as the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, the unacceptably high maternal mortality rate in many parts of the world and the lack of access to health services.

She went on to say that the review process must form an inalienable part of national strategies for the identification and formation of polices on gender and development. In Belarus, there had been many policies that addressed that issue. Most important among those was a census conducted in 1999 that would help facilitate the integration of gender policy in governmental institutions and enhance the research capabilities of scientific institutions. The census would also help non-governmental organizations in their grass-roots advocacy programmes. She added that her delegation would continue to make maximum efforts to implement the goals of the Programme.

GUSTAVO LOPEZ OSPINA, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said the resolution adopted at the special session had been extremely relevant to UNESCO's mandate, as it called for governments to take strong measures to promote human rights for women and encouraged them to strengthen reproductive and sexual health programmes, as well as focus on population and development programmes.

The resolution had also emphasized important future priorities in terms of population, development and education, he said. For example, achieving universal access to primary education by 2015, and the elimination of the gender gap in primary education by 2005. By 2010, the net primary school enrolment ratio for children of both sexes would be at least 90 per cent, compared to an estimated 85 per cent in 2000. Special efforts should be made to increase the retention rates of girls in primary and secondary school, and parents should be sensitized to the value of education, particularly of girls.

He said that seven critical dimensions related to the Programme of Action had been especially relevant today in UNESCO's regular programme: strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; developing endogenous capacity- building through education and the eradication of illiteracy; advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women; increasing knowledge of and commitment to the environment and sustainable development; protecting rights to physical and mental health, including reproductive health, and responding to youth and adolescent needs; developing a properly managed relationship between population, resources, the environment and development, and enhancing the full participation of all relevant groups, especially women and youth; and proper management of social transformations related to internal and international migration, and urbanization.

He said that UNESCO was prepared to join hands with governments and civil societies, as well as with United Nations partners and members of the international community, to accelerate progress towards implementation of the Cairo +5 proposals. After all, UNESCO was the United Nations agency devoted to education, science, communication and culture culture, as well as from its very nature an organization dedicated to the furtherance of peace, the welfare of humankind, and individual and social development. It would continue to play a catalytic role in mobilizing the support of all of the relevant organizations of the United Nations system and non- governmental organizations in favour of educating for a sustainable future.

ADRIANE MARTIN HILBER, World Health Organization (WHO), said the Organization had been particularly interested in reviewing gender-based strategies initiated at the country level to promote gender equality, equity and the empowerment of women in reproductive health. The UNFPA's field inquiry in 1998 on progress towards implementing the Cairo outcome had shown that, in most countries, gender issues had begun to be integrated into various population and development strategies through the establishment or strengthening of national institutional mechanisms dealing with health and women. Some 79 per cent of countries had revised or developed new population policy measures aimed at integrating gender concerns into their national development strategies.

She said that the WHO was a firm advocate of the principles expanded in Cairo as critical to the attainment, not only of better reproductive health, but also of overall health and development. Hence, the incorporation of gender-based factors in health strategies and programmes were fundamental to their success. Fifty years after the formulation of the Organization's constitution, it was evident that factors determining health and the burden of ill-health were not the same for women and men. They played different roles in different societal contexts; those roles were valued differently, and those associated with men were usually valued more highly. That had affected the degree to which women and men had access to, and control over, the resources and decision-making needed to protect their health.

Those differences had resulted in inequitable differences in health outcomes, she went on. In order to begin to address those inequalities, gender disaggregated analysis of social and demographic factors associated with ill-health must become the standard. There had been growing recognition that equal opportunities for women and men and improving women's status were necessary for achieving health and sustainable development. Building upon past efforts in that area, the WHO continued to integrate a gender perspective in all of its work. Accordingly, it was developing an organization-wide gender policy to ensure that all research, policies and programmes were designed from a gender perspective. That would increase the impact on equity of health interventions and contribute to achieving social justice, thus enabling the WHO to carry out its mandate in providing global leadership in health.

ANTONIO GOLINI (Italy)said that it was well known that Italy had one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. That country was also among those with the highest life expectancy. Together, those two demographic phenomena had produced a rapidly ageing population that had given Italy a population with the highest percentage of elderly in the world. It was also important to note that Italy admitted between 50,000 and 80,000 immigrants each year. Those trends pointed to a dramatic reduction in the sector of the population from 20 to 40 years of age, and an increase of people from 40 to 60 years of age.

In that regard, the Italian Government was now increasing both home care and day hospital care, in order to avoid the institutionalization of older persons, particularly those with physical or mental problems. It also intended to allow deductions for nurses and home health workers. Those and other measures were intended to alleviate the burden on middle-aged women, who were squeezed between parental assistance and the care for their own families.

One of the major problems that Italy had to face was the imbalance between the sexes in the immigrant population, he continued. Among the people coming from Latin America, there was an excess of women who were largely employed in domestic service. On the other hand, North African immigrants were largely men who were mainly self-employed or construction workers. Italy favored family reunification to balance those differences between the sexes. He concluded by saying that Italian contributions to funding population activities had increased in recent years.

M. CLIQUET (Belgium) said that the report on population, gender, development (document E/CN.9/2000/4) was generally excellent, but a crucial element was missing: the consideration of gender, labor participation and fertility. He was aware that it was a difficult issue to research, but it was certainly one deserving further discussion. The trend had been well researched in many countries and perhaps the report could have contained a section on it.

BRIGITTA BUCHT, Assistant Director and Chief of the Demographic Analysis Branch, UNFPA, informed the delegates that before the reports were issued, they would be revised to take into account many of their suggestions.

In response to the question from the representative of Belgium, she said that the issue he raised had been considered for inclusion on the Commission’s current agenda, but in light of other upcoming United Nations conferences -- such as the Beijing review -– that would possibly address the issue more effectively, it was not included. She also informed delegates that any further comments on the documents could be submitted in writing.

MOHAMMAD NIZAMUDDIN, Director, Technical and Policy Division, UNFPA, said that UNFPA would take note of the delegations’ critical review of the documents and would take their suggestions into account when the reports were finalized. It was interesting to note that the comments and suggestions echoed by many delegations would be considered by the special session when it reviewed “future actions”. UNFPA would most likely include all the delegations’ comments when developing its country programmes and system –wide initiatives.

MOHAMMAD ALI ZARIE ZARE (Iran)asked Mr. Nizamuddin to clarify some points about the allocation of resources in light of donor contributions described in document E/CN.9/2000/5. He also wondered if data for emergency relief aid were included in the report. While he realized that it might be difficult to quantify such information, perhaps it could be presented more clearly when the reports were updated.

Mr. NIZAMUDDIN said that the methodology in collecting the data made reporting specific and concrete figures very difficult. There had been attempts to “pin down” the figures to the last dollar, but most of the data reported were still estimates. He said that its was important to note that, since the total goal of resource flows for population assistance was far from being achieved, a difference of 10 to 15 per cent was miniscule. The resource flows reported did not include emergency relief.

M. EGERO (Sweden) said that any discussions pertaining to family planning should be included in the category of reproductive health care. While recognizing that there was a technical difference, they were linked.

* *** *