The impact of conflict and natural disasters and the often resulting flows of refugees and displaced persons must be included when considering contemporary population trends and transitions and their integration into the new development agenda, the Commission on Population and Development heard today.
Integrating population issues into sustainable development was inevitable if new goals were to be achieved, experts and delegates said in an exploration of holistic approaches towards that end, as the Commission on Population and Development continued its forty-eighth session.
Addressing the needs and rights of today’s youth must be at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda, the Commission on Population and Development heard today as it continued its session, with some speakers declaring that young people should be both the chief beneficiary and the driving force behind the new plan.
Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Commission on Population and Development, delivered by Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, in New York today:
In a quest to reach agreement on the population issues that were central to defining and implementing a post-2015 vision for sustainable development, the Commission on Population and Development opened its forty-eighth session today under the theme, “Realizing the future we want: integrating population issues into sustainable development, including in the new agenda”.
After all-night negotiations, the Commission on Population and Development capped its forty-seventh session in the early hours of 12 April with the adoption of a consensus resolution, urging Governments to address gaps in implementing the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, notably in the areas of human rights, gender equality and equitable access to health care, including for sexual and reproductive health.
For young people to reach their potential as “agents of progress”, it was crucial to involve them in the planning, development and monitoring of programmes that affected their lives, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Youth told the Commission on Population and Development today, drawing particular attention to the situation of adolescent girls.
Citing steps to stamp out violence in the home, maternal mortality and sexually transmitted diseases, representatives of small island developing States shed light on their respective national schemes to implement the 1994 landmark population and development accord, as the Commission on Population and Development continued its session today.
While the last 20 years had seen remarkable gains in achieving universal education, reducing maternal mortality, and increasing access to sexual and reproductive health services, growing inequity was preventing the most marginalized from realizing their human rights, United Nations experts said today, as the Commission on Population and Development launched its forty-seventh session.
