| UNFPA IN THE NEWS - WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8-14,
2003
United News of Bangladesh reported February 10 that the Bangladesh
government will receive 2.60 million US dollars equivalent to
Tk 15.80
crore from the United Nations Population Fund over the next three
years.
The funds will be used to strengthen the advocacy in support
of
reproductive health and gender issues, provide support to the
Population
Wing of the Bangladesh Planning Commission and support the Department
of
Population Sciences in the Universities of Dhaka and Rajshahi.
World Market Research Centre (WMRC) reported February 11 on the
arrests
of two abortion practitioners in Iran, following revelations
by Iran's
Deputy Health Minister, Hossein Malek Afzali, that some 80,000
abortions
take place in Iran every year, most of them illegal. WMRC also
noted
that concerns about the health risks posed by illegal abortions
in Iran
are likely to influence the approach of international agencies-primarily
the World Bank, UNFPA and WHO-in their activities as they continue
to
assist the Iranian government in the field of healthcare, particularly
in the area of population stabilization.
The US decision to hold funds from UNFPA has not only upset activists
and lobbyists, but has also irked Nepal policymakers. Sharat
Singh
Bhandari who was the outspoken health minister in the Deuba government
said, "We respect the US' right to decide its own policies,
but we urge
it to take a wider perspective in issues that might have global
impact
and implications." While Minister Bhandari battled social
taboos about
discussing sex and was embroiled in controversy for advocating
the
legalization of prostitution. He added, "Our present reality
demands
that women should be given a right to decide what happens to
their
bodies and how they want to plan their families. We should keep
politics
out of it." Read: Nepali
Times
The Vanguard mentioned in its February 11 story that according
to UNFPA
the many challenges in improving the reproductive health of its
people
shows that 37% of deliveries in the country must be supervised.
There is
very high evidence of a maternal mortality rate at 800 per 100,000
live
births, and the infant mortality rate is 84 per 1,000 live births.
Read: The
Vanguard
In an effort to better understand and improve the status
and
quality of
life of women in the Republic of Congo, the government has begun
the
compilation of data on violence against women countrywide, reported
UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks on February 12. With
the
support of the U.N. Population Fund, the government's Direction
generale
de la promotion de la femme et de l'integration de la femme au
developpement issued a report on 8 February detailing the findings
of a
nationwide study of attitudes towards and incidences of violence
against
women. Read: UN IRIN
Business Day reported on February 8 that
South Africa's Social Development Minister, Zola Skweyiya, has
urged the United Nations
Population Fund to continue co-operating with Africa to help
address
problems of HIV/AIDS and poverty facing the continent, the government
news service BuaNews reported. The minister was addressing UNFPA
representatives who converged on Cape Town for a five-day Southern
African Region Cluster Meeting. Read: Business
Day
In his February 10 column, "The Truth About George Bush's
Anti-AIDS
Push," in Australia's The Age, Kenneth Davidson also referred
to Bush's
actions in July 2002 when he withheld from the U.N. Population
Fund US
$34 million in funding for birth control, maternal and child
care and
HIV/AIDS prevention. In August, he withheld more than $US200
million in
funding programs to support women and tackle HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan.
Read: The Age
's Richard
Kim also noted in his February 24 column on Bush's
funding for AIDS fight that, this past summer Bush stripped UNFPA
of $34
million at the request of Republican House members who alleged
that
UNFPA supported coerced abortions in China-which UNFPA denies-and
then
shifted that funding to USAID. Many of the same lawmakers also
wanted to
deny USAID funding to the Population Council for not using
abstinence-based HIV prevention programs. Read: The Nation
Fights over farm aid and logging in Alaska are hindering the
crafting of
a House-Senate compromise $396 billion spending package for this
year,
but leading lawmakers still hope Congress will finish the wide-ranging
bill by week's end. The Associated Press reported February 12
that
lawmakers were refusing to disclose details of the enormous bill
until
the final version is completed. According to aides and lobbyists,
the
emerging compromise also includes: $34 million for the U.N. Population
Fund's international family planning efforts. The money is unlikely
to
be spent because Bush could withhold it if he should decide,
as he did
last year, that the agency tolerates coerced abortions in China,
which
the U.N. agency denies. Read: Associated Press
The Redlands Daily Facts (CA) reported February 10 that Redlander
Jane
Roberts' "34 Million Friends" project has garnered
$406,000 and the
money is still coming in, she said in a letter to the American
Association of University Women this month. That's up substantially
from
$130,000 before Christmas. It's the grassroots campaign launched
by Jane
and Lois Abraham of New Mexico to replace the $34 million the
United
States had promised the United Nations for family planning that
was cut
by President Bush. Read: Redlands Daily Facts
(PANA)
reported February 5 that Jane Roberts
of the "34 Million Friends" campaign, told a news conference
on Feb. 5
in Dakar that the campaign has so far raised US $500,000 for
UNFPA and
receives 2,000 letters of support each day from across the United
States.
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