Decision Makers, Development Experts, Lawmakers, Meet in Stockholm to Reinforce Importance of Population Issues to Future Development Agenda

UNITED NATIONS, New York — Parliamentarians and development experts from across the world will meet in Stockholm on 23 -25 April to review successes and challenges in achieving the Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). They will also discuss ways to ensure that the rights of women and young people and their sexual and reproductive well-being remain a priority in any future development efforts.

The conference’s scheduled speakers include:

• Per Westerberg, Speaker of the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament
• Hillevi Engström, Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden
• Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund
• Baroness Jenny Tonge, President of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development and Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Reproductive Health and Development
• Ulrika Karlsson, Chair of the Swedish All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

The conference coincides with the 20th anniversary of the ICPD. At that ground-breaking forum, 179 governments agreed that individuals’ reproductive health must be at the heart of development policies and committed to making this a priority for the next 20 years.

Participants in this sixth edition of the biennial International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD (IPCI/ICPD) in Stockholm will take stock of what has been achieved in the last 20 years and discuss ways to keep the ICPD’s issues a global priority. They are also expected to produce a forward-looking declaration that will build upon previous IPCI commitments and underline the need to keep maternal health and universal access to sexual and reproductive health at the centre of the post-2015 development agenda.

The conference is hosted by Sweden and is being organized by UNFPA and the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development together with The Swedish Parliament and the Swedish All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. The opening ceremony will be held in the presence of H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

The event’s website is www.ipci2014.org.

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For more information, please contact:
Eddie Wright, UNFPA: ewright[at]unfpa.org; + 1 212 297 2717