Dispatches - January
Nordic Parliamentarians Visit UNFPA in Nicaragua on Joint UNDG Study Tour
COPENHAGEN – Parliamentarians from four Nordic countries have concluded a study tour to Nicaragua to observe the UN reform process at work and the impact of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on development work.
The eight-member Nordic delegation met with President Daniel Ortega state officials and local parliamentarians as part of a joint UN tour organized by UNFPA, UNDP, WFP and UNICEF. Increasingly, UN agencies are coordinating their work, including field visits, under what is known as ‘Delivering as One’.
The tour, from 13-18 January 2008, also included a visit to UNFPA’s country office, several local NGOs and projects dealing with SRHR issues. The visits provided parliamentarians with a first-hand look at the need to strengthen access to reproductive health and safe motherhood, promote gender equality, and prevent HIV/AIDS in Nicaragua.
“It was rewarding to see what is done, and what can be done with very small means when you find the right people,” said Elisabeth Naucler a Finnish member of the delegation during a visit to ASONVIHSIDA, a NGO of people living with HIV, “We understood very well how alarming the HIV situation is in the country, what a lack of resources there is, and how little is known about the real HIV figures in the poorest and most remote places.” Ms Naucler is an MP for the Swedish People’s Party since 2007.
Parliamentarians witnessed UN efforts to assist Nicaraguan villages in the wake of Hurricane Felix in September 2007. “Most of the inhabitants had lost everything. They were fishermen, and needed boats and nets so survive, the work of the international organisations made the difference between life and death for them,” added Ms. Naucler.
There were some unexpected insights as well. “During our visit, we could not at all recognise the picture of the UN as bureaucratic and slow, as is often pictured in the media,” said Mogens Jensen, a Danish Social Democratic MP. “According to our own experience and that of the Nicaraguans we met, the UN works efficiently and coordinates the donor contributions from 47 countries, which are involved in the developing assistance in Nicaragua. This is good to see.”
Overall, the study tour was a success. “It is my strong belief that the study tour gave the parliamentarians an important in-sight into UNFPA’s work to ensure women’s reproductive health and rights and prevent HIV/AIDS in Nicaragua and that these experiences will strengthen their important commitment to the ICPD Programme of Action and UNFPA,” said Asger Ryhl, Chief of UNFPA’s Nordic Office, who accompanied the delegation to Nicaragua
Parliamentarians in the delegation included the following. Denmark: Mr. Mogens Jensen, Social Democrats and Ms. Ellen Trane Nørby, Liberal Party; Finland: Ms. Elisabeth Nauclér, Swedish People's Party and Mr. Kimmo Sasi, National Coalition Party; Iceland: Mr. Bjarni Benediktsson, Independence Party and Mr. Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, Left-Green Movement; Norway: Ms. Anne Margrethe Larsen, Liberal Party and Mr. Morten Høglund, Progress Party. All participating MPs represent their respective Foreign Affairs Committees and will report to these upon their returns.
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European Donors Help UNFPA Set Another Fund-Raising Record
New York — Once again, European donor countries and the European Commission have helped ensure another banner year for UNFPA in terms of financial support from the international community. A total of 181 United Nations Member States contributed $419 million to UNFPA’s regular resources – representing the highest number of donor nations and the largest amount of contributions to the Fund since it began operations in 1969. Eight of the top ten donor countries in 2007 were European nations: the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Finland and Spain.
Co-financing income -- funds earmarked to specific projects or programmes – also reached a new high in 2007: $244 million. This included contributions from the European Commission and the World Bank to support national population and housing censuses and thematic trust funds on reproductive health commodity security, maternal health, and the Campaign to End Fistula, as well as UNFPA’s humanitarian activities and HIV prevention efforts.
“We are extremely proud of this unprecedented financial backing by the world community,” said UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. “It underlines a firm appreciation for our mandate and our work. It also exhibits a keen global understanding of the centrality of population issues, including sexual and reproductive health, for achieving sustainable development.”
The record number of contributing countries in 2007 was the culmination of a steady increase over the last few years, from 69 in 1999, to 172 in 2005, to last year’s new high of 181.
“We are very thankful for this overwhelming show of support,” said Ms. Obaid. “At the same time, we are genuinely hopeful that the rest of the world community will join our efforts to promote women’s rights and ensure universal access to reproductive health—which would bring us closer to achieving the goal of poverty eradication.”
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