| UNFPA IN THE NEWS - WEEK OF APRIL 12-18,
2003 BANGLADESH: Motherhood and Work According to
Social Dimension of the Growth of the Garment Industry in Bangladesh,
a research paper prepared by Dr. Salma Chowdhury Zahir and published
by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, found that
more married women (48 percent) preferred to settle down in the
Export Processing Zone (EPZ), which offered day-care facilities,
than in the non-EPZ, where large garment factories are located.
The study added that women workers in non-EPZ factories rarely
opted for motherhood. According to a health-care center run by
UNFPA, only 52 women factory workers turned up for pregnancy
tests in June 2002. BULGARIA: Free HIV Tests Made Available Medical
offices opened in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Pleven to do free
HIV tests, according to an April 15 story by the Bulgarian News
Agency. The identity of the people who will be tested will remain
anonymous. The consumables and consultancy will be provided by
a joint project of the Bulgarian Health Ministry and UNFPA. Read:
Bulgaria
News Agency CUBA: UNFPA Delegation Participates in Regional
HIV/AIDS Forum On April 14, Cubavision TV broadcasted a one-minute
segment of
a delegation from UNFPA participating in the Regional HIV/AIDS
Forum and touring health facilities in Cuba. The video shows
delegation touring sites of interest. GLOBAL: ICPD Promises Unkempt "Sad to
say, there's little sign that the world's nations are serious
about population control," noted The Minneapolis Star Tribune's
April 14 editorial. They seemed serious back in 1994, when the
U.N. population conference was held in Cairo: Back then, they
pledged to invest $17 billion a year in population control and
reproductive health by the year 2000. But the promise hasn't
been kept not at all. As the U.N. Population Fund noted earlier
this month, the total spent on population control in 2000 was
only $11.2 billion. In 2001, the figure dropped shamefully, to
$9.4 billion. The editorial concluded: "Even
now, a good half of the world's citizens subsist on $2 a day
or less. As U.N.
Population Fund Director Thoraya Obaid argues, the only way to
bring hope to them is to invest in the strategies known to squelch
poverty. Chief among them is population control, so foolishly
neglected by the world's wealthy." Read: Star Tribune GLOBAL: Girls' Education a Win-Win Situation An April 12 op ed
that ran in The Nation (Kenya) written by UNESCO Director General
Koichiro Matsuura; UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown; UNFPA
Director General Thoraya Obaid; UNICEF Executive Director Carol
Bellamy; World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn; and ILO Executive
Director Juan Somavia mentioned: "The rationale
for girls' education is now indisputable. It translates into
lower infant and maternal mortality, smaller and healthier families,
higher agricultural productivity and higher per capita incomes." KYRGYZSTAN:
UNFPA Funds Five Projects Kabar News Agency reported
April 18 that five UNFPA projects, worth 900,000 dollars,
have been signed at a meeting between the Kyrgyz Deputy Prime
Minister, Dzhoomart Otorbayev, and the Regional Director of UNFPA,
Nesim Tumkaya, in government house in Kyrgyzstan. Otorbayev said
that these projects are aimed at giving people more access to
services to protect their reproductive health, preventing
the spread of HIV infection and AIDS and education about gender
equality,
as well as improvements to statistics and demography services. LEBANON:
Deal with Pharmaceutical Company Reduces HIV/AIDS Drugs Cost The
Daily Star (Lebanon) reported April 16 that the Ministry of
Health is expected to save at least $1 million a year in drug
bills thanks to a deal signed with a pharmaceutical company that
will provide AIDS drugs at 15 percent of the market rate. The
initiative is a cooperative endeavor by UNAIDS, WHO, UNICEF,
the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Merck Sharp and Dohme as well
as other pharmaceutical
companies. LEBANON AND SYRIA: Experts Call for Demographic
Policies to Promote Development The need to implement new demographic policies
capable of promoting development was the main focus of a group
of Syrian and Lebanese experts, who met in Beirut, reported The
Daily Star (Lebanon). Social Affairs Minister Asaad Diab said
that integration and harmonization between Lebanon and Syria
are necessary to achieve growth and sustainable development. "
The ministry has already set a national demographic policy, in
which it designated social problems here," Diab said, adding
that an implementation of the policy will be achieved soon in
cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund. NEW ZEALAND:
UNFPA Mentioned as a Major Source The New Zealand
Herald listed UNFPA's website: http://www.unfpa.org as a source
in an April 16 feature story, "Population Clocks
and Related Links." NIGERIA: UNFPA Denies Plans to Withdraw
Services Panafrican News
Agency reported April 16 that UNFPA has denied a local newspaper
report that it plans to withdraw its services from Nigeria in
2007.The report had quoted UNFPA Country Representative, Niangoran
Essan, as saying last weekend that the UN agency, which has been
operating in Nigeria since 1974 to improve reproductive health
and family
planning services, would cease to operate in 2007. "That
is far from the truth, at no time has the fund contemplated that," Essan
said in Lagos. UNFPA is currently assisting 12 of the 36 States
in Nigeria, while plans are underway to add three more States
under the fifth cycle. NIGERIA: Reviewing Population and Development
for ICPD +10 Stakeholders
in population and development met in Abuja last weekend to review
progress made in Nigeria in population and development almost
10 years after the International Conference on Population and
Development was held in Cairo, reported The Daily Trust (Nigeria).
UNFPA Country Representative, Mr. Niangoran Essan said that global
revolution had occurred in population and development since ICPD
and asked Nigeria to critically review its progress and come
up with a candid response to reshape the future. Read: Daily
Trust PHILIPPINES: Manila Grows to Megacity Proportion
in 25 Years The Manila Bulletin reported April 14 that
in 1975, Metro Manila
was not yet among the five megacities of the world. But 25
years later, it is now among 19 such cities, 11 of which are
in the developing world. By 2015, there will be 23 megacities
as UNFPA predicted. UNITED STATES: Funding Bush's HIV/AIDS Initiative The
Akron Beacon Journal's April 13 editorial noted that conservative
groups with no love for anything U.N.-related object to the money
going to the Global AIDS Fund. In a disheartening repeat of the
assault on funding for the U.N. Population Fund, they accuse
the U.N. Global Fund of advancing abortion, prostitution and
a homosexual agenda. Read: Akron
Beacon Journal UNITED STATES: IWHC Defends UNFPA from Right Wing Attacks Adrienne
Germain, President of International Women's Health Coalition,
responded to Steve Mosher's March 21 op ed in an April 13 letter
that ran in The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA). Germain
wrote, "As
a member and core strategist of the Clinton delegation to the
1994 United Nations population conference, I can state categorically
that neither the U.S. delegation, nor any other delegation, (nor
the U.N. agencies or nongovernmental organizations) 'promote
abortion as "reproductive health."'" Germain continued: "Mr.
Mosher's phrase is widely used by the extreme right to camouflage
a broader, underlying agenda. That agenda would deny women access
to the widest range of contraceptives of their choice, withhold
vital information from young people that would protect them against
HIV and AIDS and prevent girls and women from achieving equality
with men." UNITED STATES AND KENYA: Population Institute
and Family Planning Association of Kenya Win UNFPA Award According
to The Washington Times' April 18 story, Werner Fornos, an outspoken
critic of President Bush's population policies, has won the $12,500
U.N. Population Award. "The selection is in recognition
of your outstanding contribution to the awareness of population
growth," Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA,
said in a letter to Mr. Fornos. Mr. Fornos, President of Washington-based
Population Institute, has repeatedly denounced the Bush administration
for
refusing to fund foreign private organizations that promote abortion
as part of family planning efforts. The Times also noted that
The U.N. fund announced this week that the Family Planning Association
of Kenya also will receive the award at a June 18 ceremony at
U.N. headquarters in New York. The UN News Centre also reported
on this story. Read: Washington
Times and UN
News Centre The Family Planning Association of Kenya has
won this year's United Nations Population Fund Award, according
to an April 18 story
by The Nation (Kenya). The association will receive a gold medal
and a cash prize of an unspecified amount at a ceremony at the
UN headquarters in New York in June. Yesterday, the association's
Executive Director, Godwin Nzenge, said the win reflected the
dedication of the association's staff and volunteers all over
the country. Read:
The
Nation
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