PRESS CONFERENCE ON 2004 ‘STATE OF THE WORLD POPULATION REPORT’

Impressive progress had been made by countries in alleviating poverty, improving women’s rights and improving reproductive health according to the 2004 “State of the World Population Report”, released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

This year’s report, entitled “The Cairo Consensus at Ten:  Population, Reproductive Health and Effort to End Poverty”, examines the progress countries had made and the obstacles encountered at the halfway point in implementing a landmark 20-year programme to provide universal access to reproductive health care by 2015.  The programme was adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held at Cairo.

Safiye Cagar, UNFPA Director of Information and External Relations, said the Cairo Conference linked poverty reduction to women’s empowerment and universal access to reproductive health.  The Conference marked a policy shift, placing emphasis on peoples’ rights.  Investment in people was the key to sustained economic growth, as well as population levels and increased resources were important.  “We are moving forward and we have much to celebrate”, she said, citing a UNFPA global survey that showed countries had taken important steps to carry out the Cairo recommendations.  States had also renewed their commitment to the Programme of Action adopted at the Conference.

According to the report, world population, now 6.4 billion, was still growing rapidly -- currently by 76 million persons per year.  By 2050, the United Nations projects the world would add some 2.5 billion people, a number equal to the world’s total population in 1950.  Enabling couples and individuals to determine the number of spacing of their children, and investing in health and education, were essential to reducing poverty at both household and national level, the report said.

Ms. Cagar also said that, in the past ten years, most governments had integrated population concerns into their development strategies.  Almost all developing countries had adopted laws to protect the rights of girls and women and had recognized their reproductive rights through changes in national policies, laws and institutions.  New partnerships had been developed between governments and civil society to meet reproductive health needs.  Three quarters of the countries surveyed by the UNFPA last year had adopted national strategies on HIV/AIDS, she said.

She pointed out that the progress achieved had been uneven and that enormous challenges remained.  More than 350 million couples still lacked access to a full range of family planning services.  Complications of pregnancy and childbirth were the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in developing countries.  Population growth was heightening poverty and worsening stress on the environment.  The response of the international community to the need for resources had been inadequate.  Donor countries had given only half of the amount they agreed to ten years ago for the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

Jill Sheffield, President of New York-based Family Care International, also speaking at the press conference, said UNFPA and the non-governmental community had been tracking changes that countries had made.  It was “absolutely true that great progress” had been made, she said.  There were huge shortfalls, however, in attempting to close gaps in the remaining ten years of the Cairo Programme.  Its implementation saved lives every day.

It was crucial for an investment to be made in young people, who now formed the largest segment of the population, she said.  Such an investment would enable young people to make reasonable, responsible decisions about their sexuality to protect themselves from life-threatening diseases, HIV/AIDS among them.

Responding to a question about the handling such issues as clean water, shelter and food in the wake of the projected increase in world population, Ms. Cagar said UNFPA’s answer was to provide voluntary family planning to couples to enable them to space the number of their children.  Ms. Sheffield added it was clear that when families were small, resources grew per capita.  global partnerships were needed to deal with those issues.

The UNFPA report also said the tenth anniversary of the ICPD was an opportunity for governments and the international community to review implementation efforts, renew pledges and identify priorities and remaining challenges.  With its comprehensive approach linking population and development, including environmental protection, the report said the ICPD Programme of Action continued to offer an essential blueprint for development efforts in the coming decades.

The UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of assistance to developing countries’ reproductive health and population programmes.  The organization’s State of the World Population report has been published annually since 1978.

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