Summary: June 21, 2004: Speech by Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid on "Putting People First: Implementing the ICPD Agenda and Achieving the Millenium development Goals" at UNFPA Special Event Panel Discussion (Geneva)
Your Excellency Mr. Abdullah Alsaidi, President of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board,
Mrs. Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director UNFPA,
Ladies and gentlemen:
It is with great pleasure that I join you at this UNDP/UNFPA Board Special Event. The subject for discussion here today is one which is vitally important to me personally. There is no doubt in my mind that implementation of the ICPD Agenda is vital for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Eradicating poverty, promoting gender equality, achieving universal primary education, improved maternal health, reduced child mortality, confronting HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria - is only possible if
the ICPD Programme of Action is fully implemented and ODA drastically increased.
First of all may I offer my congratulations on the forthcoming 10th anniversary of the Cairo Conference? The International Conference on Population and Development was a watershed event. It marked the formal transition from an era where we were preoccupied with population growth and limiting family size to one focussed on respect for human rights and dignity, gender equality, provision of reproductive health services and choice by women, men, families and communities. ICPD offers particular
hope to women and children.
I was delighted to hear in Mrs. Obaid's presentation of the progress made in implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action as shown by the latest global survey. Some findings are particularly encouraging: the growing integration of the ICPD agenda into poverty reduction strategies and the near universal adoption of measures to protect the rights of girls and women, and to tackle gender based violence, stand out.
Despite these remarkable achievements, we must not hide from the fact that much work remains to be done and the implementation of the programme for action has not been easy in recent years. Maternal mortality rates have not improved in many countries and in some cases have got worse because of inefficient strategies, lack of attention to poor women, lack of contraception and professionally assisted deliveries. It is also clear that legislation, while necessary, is not sufficient for eliminating
the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), something which is of particular concern to many Europeans. Most of those countries where FGM is commonly practiced are very poor, with very little capacity to police laws effectively. I am convinced that it is poverty itself and related factors, such as lack of education, which perpetuate FGM.
Another major challenge is the persistent gap in the provision of reproductive health services, including necessary commodities, especially to poor people and young women and men. In many parts of the world reproductive health services are still not an integral part of primary health care, indeed in some countries service provision is still struggling to move on from the pre-Cairo family planning paradigm.
In this regard I am concerned that despite the improvements found in the global survey, sexual and reproductive health programmes in many developing countries are not well developed as part of multi-sector policies and programmes for health, and they are not an important part of poverty reduction strategies. This is particularly important for ensuring sustainable financing of ICPD related activities, particularly when donors such as the European Commission are moving increasingly to providing
our aid as general or sector-specific budget support.
At the present time, only half of the ICPD action programme is financed while we know that achieving the MDGs will require a major step up in official development assistance, and as this materialises wherever possible, most of it will be delivered as budgetary aid in support of a country aimed "MDG-friendly" PRSP.
Despite the progress in recent years, the human development situation in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, remains on a knife-edge. The greatest and new challenge is HIV/AIDS, which is - together with other communicable diseases epidemics such as malaria and tuberculosis - precipitating a human disaster of unprecedented proportions. During my spell as European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Affairs I have witnessed the relentless progression of those epidemics in
Africa and elsewhere in the world. HIV/AIDS threatens to completely unravel the achievements of the past 30 years in the worst affected countries. Over 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV, and last year some three million people died of AIDS. Many of these were young adults - mothers, fathers, breadwinners, carers. Societies are struggling desperately to cope, and we must redouble our efforts to assist them to do so. Another dimension of the epidemic is the growing gender
disparity in HIV infection rates, with young women especially at far higher risk than their male counterparts. The European Commission has taken a leading role in putting into place strategies to make pharmaceutical products for prevention and treatment and care more affordable. Because of these efforts, in only 4 years prices have decreased by 90%.
Implementation of the ICPD agenda is vital in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In particular, ensuring respect for reproductive rights, outlawing gender-based violence, and above all ensuring access to reproductive health services and appropriate protective commodities such as condoms will have a huge impact on reducing transmission of HIV.
Within the European Commission and the European Union we have made considerable progress in promoting the ICPD agenda. For the first time we have been able to channel support from the European Development Fund directly to UNFPA and IPPF. This was done in response to the withdrawal of US funding following the re-introduction of the Mexico City policy - or "global gag rule" - halting funding of organisations linked in any way to the provision of abortion services. €33 million has been provided to
a joint reproductive health programme involving the EC, UNFPA and African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States. During Mrs Obaid's recent visit to Brussels I made a commitment to provide additional support aimed particularly at improving the supply of reproductive health commodities in ACP countries.
I must say here that I have been extremely dismayed by the actions of the United States in refusing to fund UNFPA and in attempting to undermine the Cairo consensus. Here we had the country that championed the founding of UNFPA now spurning it. Added to this we have official support for so-called abstinence programmes and negative and factually wrong messages about condoms, which will only serve to worsen reproductive health in developing countries through increasing unwanted pregnancies and
sexually transmitted infections. I have been very pleased and relieved to learn that developing countries themselves have stood firmly beside ICPD during these attacks, for example during the recent special meeting on Population and Development held by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Current US policy seems to have found some fertile ground in Europe too. Over the past few years I have received questions about European support for ICPD.
This anti-ICPD campaign was at its most active during the debate in the European Parliament and Council on the new Regulation on aid for policies and actions on reproductive and sexual health and rights in developing countries. Happily this legislation was eventually passed, despite the opposition, laying the basis for the provision of an increased additional budget of nearly €74 million over 4 years to NGOs and international agencies for "promoting ... reproductive and sexual health and rights
... , including safe motherhood and universal access to a comprehensive range of safe and reliable reproductive and sexual health care and services".
We are very proud of these achievements, and already they are reaping dividends. For example, the Commission is providing IPPF with nearly €2 million from this budget line for support to "Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All", a series of activities and events to mark the 10th anniversary of ICPD. This will include an International Round Table to be held in London, 31 August - 2 September 2004.
I shall be retiring in a few months on completion of my term as Commissioner I will urge my successor to continue to offer active EC support for sexual and reproductive health. While we have managed to achieve a great deal, much work remains to be done. The Cairo Conference was a milestone, but now ten years later we are facing renewed challenges. The world's population is now over 6 billion and is still growing at more than 1.4% per year. We now have over a billion young people who all have
reproductive health needs. HIV/AIDS challenges us at the most fundamental level.
Before I finish, I must pay testament to the role played by UNFPA as the "guardian" of the ICPD Programme of Action, and in particular to Mrs Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director. You have continued to do a marvellous job in difficult times, and strengthened our partnership while doing this. We respect and recognise you for that.
Thank you.
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