PRESS
RELEASE
The ICPD+5 review
process
Religions Potential
Allies for Social Change,
Round Table on Partnership
with Civil Society Told
DHAKA, Bangladesh, 29 July -- Organized religion
is "potentially one of the best allies of social transformation",
although it has been used to block change, Frances Kissling of
Catholics for Free Choice said today. She was speaking in a plenary
session on day three of the Round Table on Partnership with Civil
Society in the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.
Ms. Kissling, President of the United States-based
non-governmental organization (NGO), was one of four panellists on
the topic of social mobilization. A second panel of four speakers
discussed ways to strengthen civil society groups and ensure their
accountability and financial sustainability.
Convened by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and hosted
by the Government of Bangladesh, the four-day round-table meeting is
part of "ICPD+5", a series of international activities reviewing
progress since the the 1994 International Conference on Population
and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. They will culminate in an
international forum next February in The Hague, the Netherlands, and
a special session of the United Nations General Assembly in June and
July 1999.
About 70 participants from some 40 countries -- representatives
from NGOs and other sectors of civil society as well as from
governments -- are discussing national experiences in carrying out
the ICPD action plan, with a focus on civil society involvement. The
aim is to identify successes and constraints, and recommend actions
to accelerate progress -- particularly policy changes that will
facilitate partnerships involving a broad range of civil society
actors, as called for in the Programme of Action.
Organized religions can be "both liberating and constraining",
Ms. Kissling observed. "The ICPD and took place in a time when the
constraining aspects are in dominance worldwide." Nevertheless,
religions are potential allies in working towards the goals of ICPD,
she said, because they all "start with the notion of the need to
reduce suffering, to create a world that is just, and to take
responsibility for the planet and the environment".
Religion reaches more people than any other sector of civil
society. "It has assets, is one of the most effective providers of
social services, and has access to governments," she added.
NGOs supporting ICPD goals should therefore make a political
commitment to cultivate allies in the religious community, to talk
to those within that community who oppose the ICPD agenda, and to
work to bring the voices of religious people into discussions on
implementing the Programme of Action.
"While the conservatives are dominant now, there are forces that
are calling for liberalization within most religions,"she said,
including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. "Those forces
should be engaged in dialogue since the pendulum will swing towards
them one day. Within every religion, there are people of faith who
can move the ICPD agenda forward."
Responding to a Ugandan participant’s question on how to respond
to the Catholic Church’s opposition to the distribution of condoms
to prevent HIV/AIDS, she said religious people must speak up against
wrong positions taken by their leaders.
"Catholics must admit that the Church is sometimes wrong," she
said. "It was wrong when it taught that the world was flat. It was
wrong when it said slavery was moral. And it is wrong when it
teaches that other considerations should be placed above using
condoms to prevent death and disease."
Also speaking on the need to work with religious organizations
was Abdullah Syarwani. He is an adviser with Nahdlatul Ulama
("renaissance of religious scholars"), Indonesia’s largest religious
organization. The Jakarta-based organization has some 40 million
members. It was formed by Muslim scholars in 1926 to preserve and
carry out the Sunni Islamic teaching in the social, cultural and
political contexts of modern Indonesia.
Nahdlatul Ulama representatives have worked to improve the lives
of families in Indonesia and helped carry out government family
planning and population programmes, he said. Its leaders understand
that reproductive health is a manifestation of physical health, and
have issued fatwas (religious edicts) on family planning.
They have allowed women to get more education, and even helped them
become judges in Islamic courts. The organization’s strong links
with schools, universities and health clinics make it a useful
instrument for distributing new ideas.
Dhruv Dey of the Majulika Foundation for Human Concerns, a former
executive with India’s Tata Corporation, describe a programme he
helped launch for adolescents, with a special emphasis on spreading
the word about reproductive health and family planning. The Tata
Group, which he once headed, has once been engaged in social
mobilization to carry the message of the ICPD Programme of Action to
the grass roots. The first step it took was to form partnerships
with mothers-in-law, whose support is needed to enable married women
to go for heath care services or attend family planning clinics.
Next, the group helped initiate community-based clinics run by
youth clubs and voluntary organizations. It subsequently worked with
tribal communities where contraceptive use was low, convincing them
to use a clinic provided to reduce maternal and child mortality and
deal with other reproductive heath concerns.
To get other companies involved, Tata Group showed them that
investments in reproductive health and related services yield
substantial benefits, he said. It also engaged in advocacy with
local community partners by using posters; music, including India’s
first population song and an AIDS/HIV song; as well as dance drama
on family planning and reproductive heath.
The founder and Executive Director of Youth Development
Foundation (YDF) of Ghana, Nelson G. Agyemang, talked about his
organization’s grass-roots work on adolescent reproductive health
and development in six of the country’s districts and in
Cameroon.
"Advocacy is both a tool and a goal of social mobilization," he
said. The best advocates are those who have experience on a
particular issue; are convinced; and take the initiative to do
things. To improve their chances of success, advocates should
research their audiences, know how to frame the issues, use
information from credible, trusted sources, and present their case
in a simple, clear and concise manner.
The plenary then turned to a discussion on "partnership for
capacity-strengthening, accountability, coalition-building and
financial sustainability". Abul Barkat, an economics professor at
Dhaka University, said the experience in Bangladesh showed the need
for accountability by NGOs.
"Those to whom NGOs are accountable need clear information on how
their common goals are accomplished. Key to this relationship is
transparency," he said. "Improved sharing of information is the
bridge to build mutual trust and understanding, which form the
foundation for successful partnerships. NGOs should listen to and
initiate actions with the people they are supposed to serve."
Susan Davis, Executive Director of the Women’s Environment and
Development Organization (WEDO), told round-table participants that
building coalitions requires skills, confidence and a strategy of
using each organization’s comparative advantage. At the same time,
there must be mechanisms that let groups keep track of the "big
picture" -- their common goals and agenda. Organizing women’s
caucuses in parliaments and engaging peer groups are among the
methods that can be used to promote coalitions’ goals, such as
providing microcredit to poor women. Strengthening the capacity of
organizations requires a commitment by managers to invest in
training and rewarding staff, she said.
Glenda Simms, Executive Director of the Jamaican Government’s
Bureau of Women’s Affairs, suggested ways for governments to engage
poor and marginalized urban and rural. She cited her bureau’s
partnership with the Jamaica Household Workers Association to
promote women’s agenda. That experience, she said, showed that
governments should respect the autonomy of their partner NGOs.
Before adjourning to continue their four working group
discussions, participants heard a presentation by representatives of
Partners in Population and Development: A South-South Initiative.
The group, headquarted in Dhaka, is an alliance of 13 developing
countries which promotes the exchange of national experience to
advance the ICPD agenda.
(For information purposes only. Not an official
document.)
|