Countdown 2015 Global Roundtable - Closing Statement

Dear friends and colleagues,

What an extraordinary three days we’ve had! Thank you, Amy, Jill and Steve, and to all the organizers for allowing me to help wrap up this invigorating and very productive global round table.

And thanks to all of you for warmly welcoming UNFPA into this frank and open dialogue on what we have achieved since Cairo, and what we need to do to achieve the ICPD vision of human rights and dignity for all people.

The ICPD – the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development – was an intergovernmental process, but non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were central to its success, both in formulating the Programme of Action and in ensuring its adoption, as members of national delegations and vigilant observers.

As each discussion in this review has richly demonstrated, your organizations and networks have been instrumental in every accomplishment we have made since Cairo, in creating new approaches and transforming mindsets and institutions to move the Programme of Action from a paper promise to reality. You have provided expertise as well as passionate, often courageous and highly vocal advocacy.

We at UNFPA depend on your wisdom and expertise, your determination to effect real change, and your commitment to a better life for the world’s poor and underserved.

This round table is another great achievement, and example of what we can accomplish by working together.

As we celebrate the ICPD anniversary and rededicate ourselves to achieving its goals, we must also agree to continue to work together at all levels, recognizing and taking full advantage of each other’s strengths and comparative advantages, appreciating each other’s constraints as well as our diversity and shared commitment.

Over the past three days, we have heard from colleagues from every part of the world about the ways the ICPD Programme of Action is being put into effect and is making a difference. We have also talked about the many challenges that must be overcome before its full promise can be realized. And we have been reminded of the urgent need to go much farther and faster, to reach the millions who still cannot access life-saving information and services.

This sharing of experience and insights about how to move forward will enable us to do better, particularly if we learn the right lessons.

One lesson is the constant need to advocate for our cause. As the intergovernmental ICPD review process, the regional meetings in Bangkok, Geneva, Dakar, Port of Spain, Santiago and San Juan, in which NGOs and youth networks were effective participants have shown, governments now feel a sense of ownership of the Programme of Action, and many leaders recognize its potential to ease poverty and enhance people’s quality of life. Efforts to roll back or dilute the Cairo consensus have been rebuffed. But we must continue to counteract such pressure by raising awareness at all levels—from the grass roots to legislative bodies and executive offices—of what we have gained and what we stand to lose.

Another lesson is that our approaches always have to reflect national and local conditions and sensibilities, and be rooted in the communities we serve. Allies at the community, national, regional and global levels, who can put ICPD understandings into practice are critical. Parliamentarians are particularly important partners, and we must continue to broaden this base of support.

We must open our present alliances to bring in new supporters to form concentric circles of support and protection around the ICPD agenda and its human rights principles.

A third lesson is that diversity makes us strong, but to work together effectively, we must really listen to better understand our varied cultures and take full advantage of our complementary experience and individual and organizational capacities. We need to be flexible and innovative, and accept a variety of approaches to mobilize communities and build ever-broader alliances. Tolerance, mutual respect and support are key to achieving our common goals.

This is what the Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, has said about the role and importance of culture: “Culture is a matrix of infinite possibilities and choices, for within the same culture matrix, we can extract arguments and strategies for the degradation or ennoblement of our species; for its enslavement or liberation; for the suppression of its protective potential or its enhancement.”

It is especially important to listen to the voices of young people. The young are not only the future, they are the present. Youth leaders like the eloquent and ardent young women and men we have heard from this week know best how to reach their own generation, effectively using relevant language and new technologies to build partnerships and commitment. We still have a long way to go to empower youth so their expertise and perspectives can really shape policies and programmes. And we still have a long way to go to establish inter-generational understanding and support, because ICPD is about fulfilment and satisfaction throughout our life cycle.

People living with HIV and AIDS are also key partners in the global effort to achieve reproductive health and rights for all. We must provide the institutional and legal support they need to achieve their human rights.

My friends,

This round table has shown that Cairo is very much alive, and we have come a long way. But against our achievements in 10 years, we must also acknowledge missed opportunities and inadequate responses to urgent needs. We must strengthen our shared determination to finish what we have started, so that in another 10 years, no one will be denied their reproductive rights.

This means continuing to build stronger and more strategic partnerships, and to fight for effective laws and policies, and to demand that financial commitments are honoured so we can scale up good initiatives to reach everyone.

The countdown to 2015 goes on, and the Cairo promise of a healthier, more equitable world continues to inspire all of us. We know what must be done to get there. Let us widen and deepen our partnership, maintain our commitment and make it happen.

I cannot close without thanking Hilary Benn for his support and increase in funding for UNFPA and the commitment for the next two years. And for lack of better words, a sincere thank you to Poul Nielson – a person who, during his tenure, has given a bureaucracy a throbbing heart and a human face. Thanks Paul, from all of us in UNFPA.

We return to our countries and institutions re-energized and recommitted to the full implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

Thank you.