Partners in Population and Development Ninth Annual Board Meeting

Statement By Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director, UNFPA

Mr. Chairperson,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

Members of the Board,

I am honoured to be here for the ninth annual board meeting of Partners in Population and Development, an intergovernmental organization with observer status in the United Nations General Assembly. And I am pleased to be in China during the 10th anniversary of the historic 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

Allow me to pay tribute to the Chinese Government and to Partners in Population and Development for the collaboration in organizing this meeting and the important international events to follow. In this regard, I wish to extend my profound gratitude to you, Timothee Gandaho, Executive Director of Partners in Population and Development, and to you, Zhang Weiqing, in your capacity as Chair of the Partners Board and also Minister of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission, for joining hands in this important event. I also should like to thank the authorities of Hubei Province and Wuhan City for their excellent hospitality.

I thank Minister Zhang Weiqing for selecting Wuhan as the venue. Yes, the lake is beautiful and one feels the harmony between people and nature. But most of all, we thank you for giving us an opportunity to see a realistic view of the social and economic situation of cities in China that are neither Beijing nor Shanghai.

I feel honoured to have the opportunity to share with your Board some of the highlights of the Cairo ten-year review process and to reflect on the partnership challenge as we mobilize to meet the ICPD and Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015.

Ten years ago in Cairo, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, acting in her capacity as the Secretary-General of the Conference, Dr. Nafis Sadik, expressed the hope that the ICPD Programme of Action would be more than a paper promise. She had the vision for a truly new thinking and approach to development, well grounded in human rights and focused on the empowerment of women.

Today, 10 years later, we can say with full confidence and satisfaction that the Cairo agenda has sprung from paper to life. It has leaped from words on a page into concrete initiatives that are making a difference in people’s lives.

All over the world, the Cairo agenda is guiding policy-making and legislation to improve the quality of life of populations.

Since the Cairo Conference in 1994, the percentage of couples in the developing world that are able to choose and use contraception has jumped from 55 to 61 per cent.

Infant mortality rates in the developing world have dropped from 71 to 61 out of every 1,000 babies born.

Life expectancy in developing countries has increased from 61 to 63 years.

Today, in many countries, fewer women now die in childbirth, but this is an area where much more needs to be done.

At regional review meetings from Bangkok to Port-of-Spain, from Geneva to Santiago and Dakar to San Juan, governments have strongly endorsed the Cairo agenda as a cornerstone for achieving their development goals.

A global survey conducted by UNFPA, to which 169 governments responded, shows that the vast majority of countries are taking action to integrate population concerns into development plans. Almost all countries are taking action to protect the rights of girls and women, and to support women’s empowerment.

Many countries are making efforts to empower women in their reproductive health choices and to encourage the involvement of men. And a majority of countries have taken measures to include reproductive health as part of their basic primary health care and health sector reform.

According to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan: “The decade following the adoption of the Programme of Action has been one of substantial progress. The world is beginning to see the end of rapid population growth, couples are closer to achieving their desired family size and spacing of children, mortality is declining in most countries, there is evidence that many countries are taking the necessary steps to confront HIV/AIDS and other mortality crises, and governments are initiating processes to address concerns related to international migration.”

And it is not only governments that are forging ahead. I just came from the Global Round Table in London, organized by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for Cairo at 10. And they are also extremely committed and invigorated.

There is strong evidence that the Cairo consensus provides a roadmap for sustainable human development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

This was brought out by many distinguished speakers at the symposia, organized by Partners in Population and Development late last year at the United Nations in New York. The discussions linking population and AIDS, family planning and development, the empowerment of women and the Millennium Development Goals provided new insights into these interrelated issues.

According to our global survey, the number one concern today for countries is HIV/AIDS. Stronger efforts must be made to extend HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment to citizens. There is a vital need to more fully integrate HIV/AIDS and reproductive health and family planning services, where they naturally would fit with one another. This is particularly essential for women who benefit from the dual services integrated into one service delivery point.

Partners in Population and Development, as a leading South-South initiative, aims to increase the sharing of knowledge, technology and expertise to accelerate implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals. There is much we have learned in the past 10 years that can be provided to the various countries through the network of Population and Development as well as through UNFPA’s presence in some 140 countries.

The challenge today and in the next 10 years is to put the laws and policies that have been adopted into practice. The challenge is to scale up effective interventions to reach all people, especially those who are poor and marginalized.

Partnerships, alliances 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. Progress has been built on expertise and passionate, often courageous and highly vocal advocacy.

There is no limit to what we can accomplish by joining hands and working together.

Over the past year, 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 making a difference. We have 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 has 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. Non-governmental organizations and 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 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 experiences 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.

It is especially important to listen to the voices of young people, who make 50 per cent of the population in developing countries. The young are not only the future; they are the present. Youth leaders know best how to reach their own generation. We still have a long way to go to empower youth so that their expertise and perspectives can really shape policies and programmes. And we still have a long way to go to establish intergenerational understanding and support, because ICPD is about fulfillment 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,

The events throughout this year have 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 his or her reproductive rights.

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

I look forward to the International Forum on Population and Development, sure that it will be a very productive meeting.

Thank you.