| UNFPA in the News: Week of January 25-31,
2003 UNFPA has announced it will convene regional meetings to address
both
HIV/AIDS and the food crisis that is affecting millions of Africans.
Xinhua General News Service reported January 27 that UNFPA Humanitarian
Unit Chief Pamela Delargy announced that the first regional working
meeting for UNFPA field offices and partners in southern Africa
is to be
held in Cape Town, South Africa on Feb. 7. Delargy said the initiative
comes due to the realization that the disease and famine each
tend to
worsen the effects of the other. BANGLADESH: Funding Released for Reproductive Health Projects
The Bangladesh government and UNFPA signed an agreement to release
funds, amounting to Tk 55.14 crore, for implementing four projects
in
Bangladesh under UNFPA's 6th Country Program, according to a
January 27
story by The United News of Bangladesh. UNFPA Representative
Suneeta
Mukherjee and ERD Secretary Anisul Huq Chowdhury signed the agreement
which will be used to strengthen family welfare services and
reproductive health education and services to garment workers.
In a January 29 story by Xinhua General News Service, noting
that more than 150 Beijing-based foreign diplomats and representatives
of international organizations attended the Chinese Lunar New
Year Culture Exhibition in the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.
Ronny Lindstrom, deputy representative of the United Nations
Population Fund, said, "I spent the Spring Festival in Singapore
about 20 years ago, and I watched some celebrations of the Chinese
Spring Festival in the United States. This introduction gave
me a different impression of the Spring Festival, which helped
me a lot in understanding Chinese culture. I will take my children
to the temple fair held in the Chaoyang Park."
Although Nigeria has the largest population of any country in
Africa, there are wide discrepancies in estimates of the total,
reported the Economist Intelligence Unit. It mentioned in its
January 28 story that the UN Population Fund put Nigeria's
population at 116.9m in 2001, with a 2.6% growth rate, while
the World Bank's World Development Indicators database said
the population in 2001 was 129.9m, and growing at a rate of
2.3%.
In a January 30 story by Pak Tribune about the availability of
emergency contraceptive pills in Pakistan, Deputy Representative
of United Nations
Population Fund, Karl Kulessa, applauded Green Star's efforts, "
Emergency contraception is just one method in the range of safe
and
effective methods of family planning that have been approved
by World
Health Organization." Green Star is one of the largest
developing-country, private reproductive health networks in the
world.
Green Star clinics and pharmacies deliver comprehensive, affordable,
quality reproductive health products and services to millions
of
low-income people throughout Pakistan. Read: Pak
Tribune and more about
Green
Star
On January 30, The Guardian (London) reported that days before
the
treaty bringing Poland into the EU goes to the European parliament,
Poland's powerful Roman Catholic church demanded that wording
must be
added to the treaty guaranteeing the country's strict anti-abortion
laws
against interference from Brussels. The story also mentioned
that
pro-life campaigners in Poland and Ireland are also outraged
at
proposals going through the European parliament to provide aid,
via the
United Nations Population Fund, to help pay for abortions in
developing
countries. Read: The Guardian <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,884920,00.html>
In a January 30 story by the Turkish Daily News, Secretary General
of
the Environment Foundation of Turkey (EFT), Engin Ural, spoke
about the
activities of the EFT on its 25th anniversary. When asked about
EFT's
international contacts, Ural said, "I can summarize our
international
relations in two categories, multilateral and bilateral. We had
very
close cooperation in the past with international institutions
such as
UNDP, UNEP, UNFPA, The World Bank, International Institute for
Environment and Development, World Resources Institute. Unfortunately,
we do not have close cooperation with the European Union. In
the future,
we might also have good relations with them."
The East African Standard (Kenya) followed up to last week's
coverage by
US National Public Radio on Uganda's fight against AIDS, noting, "The
Bush team is already withholding funding for the UN Population
Fund,
which distributes millions of condoms in sub-Saharan Africa and
other
regions. And right-wing groups are now pushing to end US support
for
international anti-AIDS organizations that put greater emphasis
on
condom use among young people, than on urging sexual abstinence
until
marriage. Read: East
African Standard and NPR's
Morning
Edition
In its January 27 editorial, The Honolulu Advertiser (HI) mentioned, "
Bush even withheld $34 million to the United Nations Population
Fund.
Sure, it helped Bush prove his anti-abortion credentials to his
ultra-conservative supporters, but the loss of American support
for the
fund, which supports family planning and maternal health programs
in
more than 140 countries, will inevitably cost lives." Read:
Honolulu
Advertiser
The Sunday Gazette Mail (WV) ran a January 26 op ed by Eleanor
Smeal of
the Feminist Majority soon after the 30th anniversary of Roe
v. Wade
that mentioned that Bush also cut a congressionally approved
allocation
of $34 million for the U.N. Population Fund, which provides
international funds for family planning to many women in Third
World
countries. Smeal noted that hese funds could have prevented 2
million
unwanted pregnancies, 4,700 maternal deaths, nearly 60,000 cases
of
serious maternal illnesses and more than 77,000 cases of infant
and
child death, according to Thoraya Obaid, the Executive Director
of the
U.N. Population Fund.
According to United
Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) forecasts, in the
future Uzbekistan may become the most populated nation on the
post-Soviet territory after Russia, reported UzReport.com on
January 27.
By 2050 the number of Uzbekistan's population will reach 40 million
and
the country will leave behind Ukraine with "only" 30
million, head of
UNFPA representation in Tashkent, Nesim Tumkay, said. Read: UzReport.com
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