| UNFPA in the News: Week of March 15-21,
2003 According to a March 17 story by
Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Ali Watanyar,
head of the Afghan Central Census Bureau, announced that relevant
ministries would help the bureau conduct a census in Afghanistan
and facilitate the trend of reconstruction and the holding of
elections. Watanyar said, "We want UNFPA to assist and cooperate
with us in this matter." In a March 16 story by
Kuensel (Bhutan) on illegitimate children in Zhemgang village,
it mentioned that UNFPA goodwill ambassador, Her Majesty Ashi
Sangay Choden Wangchuck expressed her concern about the alarming
rate of teenage pregnancy and STD and advised the MSTF to renew
its efforts to address the problem. Read: Kuensel The Gleaner (Jamaica) reported
March 19 that the Caribbean people working in HIV/AIDS are taking
the issue of discrimination against persons living with HIV/AIDS
far too lightly and as a result it is hampering efforts to control
the disease. At the opening ceremony of UNDP Leadership for Results
Project, Hetty Seargeant of UNFPA noted that everyone in the region,
and particularly in Jamaica, knows that discrimination against
persons living with HIV/AIDS exists, but continue to treat the
issue with scant regard. Read: The
Gleaner The Daily Yomiuri (Japan)
reported March 16 that today's most imminent threat to the water
supply is, no doubt, the Earth's ever-increasing population. According
to U.N. Population Fund projections, the world population will
exceed 9 billion by 2050. India Express reported March
20 that Sanjay Kumar said the United Nations Population Fund had
extended Integrated Population and Development Project by another
four years because of successful implementation. He said PMC would
get Rs 4 crore which would be used to educate pregnant women and
administer medicines. Read: Indian
Express UNFPA Country Representative Mr.
Coulibaly Sidiki said UNFPA has made it clear that abortion is
not a family planning method and should therefore not be legalized.
The East African Standard (Kenya) reported March 18 that Coulibaly
was reacting to Health Minister Charity Ngilu's sentiments that
the government should spearhead public debate on abortion with
a view to decriminalizing it. "We at UNFPA do not and will never
support abortion," emphasized Coulibaly during the closing ceremony
of a two-week-long training course on Life Skills at Amref Training
Centre. Read: East
African Standard A nationwide demographic and health
survey has been carried out in Kenya, the official Kenya News
Agency reported, according to a March 18 story by Xinhua General
News Service. The survey aims at gathering data which would help
the government and the development partners to reassess the progress
made in the fields such as fertility and mortality, child and
maternal health, nutritional status and HIV/AIDS in the east African
country, Director of Central Bureau of Statistics David Nalo said.
The survey is supported by the United Nations Population Fund,
United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Development Program
and some other international development partners, according to
KNA. The East African Standard
reported March 18 that UNFPA said it will continue funding projects
in the country so long as the government displays accountability.
Country Director Dr. Sidiki Coulibaly said he is satisfied with
the government's determination to fight corruption. Some of the
projects the UNFPA will consider assisting are the rehabilitation
of youth centers currently housing hundreds of street children
in four locations in the city. The Nation (Kenya)
also reported on this March 18 story. Read: East
African Standard and The
Nation Nigeria will receive 1.3 million
dollars worth of contraceptives from UNFPA to battle the spread
of AIDS and improve family planning, a U.N. official said, according
to a March 18 story by Deutsche Presse-Agentur. UNFPA representative
Niangorai Essan said the contraceptives to be procured for Nigeria
this year include male and female condoms, injectibles, spermicides,
intra-uterine devices, implants and pills. Speakers at a workshop on Parliamentary
Advocacy for the Prevention of Violence against Women at Dhaka
Sheraton said to combat violence against women enactment of laws
were not enough but its implementation must be ensured and social
awareness raised, according to a March 19 story by The
Independent (Bangladesh). Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary
Affairs Barrister Moudud Ahmed and Deputy Executive Director of
UNFPA Imelda JM Henkin were special guests. UNFPA, the Bangladesh
Parliament and the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population
and Development jointly organized the workshop. United News of
Bangladesh also reported this story on March 18. Daily Times (Pakistan)
reported March 21 that lawmakers from South Asian nations have
condemned the unabated slave trade of women and girls in the region.
UNFPA Deputy Executive Director Imelda Henkin said the implementation
of laws must be institutionalized so violence is no longer accepted
within households, communities and governments. Read: Daily
Times The East African (Kenya) reported
March 17 that since the World Bank, UNFPA and the World Health
Organization launched the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987,
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania reduced the number of women dying from
maternal-related causes by 72.3 percent. Read: East
African The Providence Journal-Bulletin
(Providence, RI) ran a March 16 column, “Voters Won't Like
Finding They're Being Manipulated,” by Froma Harrop that
noted, “The administration has threatened to pull out of
a United Nations population agreement that the United States helped
write.” It objects to the terms "reproductive health services
and reproductive rights," on the ground that they may promote
abortion. Last summer, the administration withheld $34 million
in aid to the United Nations Population Fund for similar reasons. Xinhua General News Service reported
March 18 that at the opening session of the "Paris 21 Workshop
on Uses of Statistics in Development and Poverty Reduction Policies"
in Abuja, Magnus Kpakol, chief economic adviser to Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo, called on the delegates to be champions and
promoters of excellent information systems in their countries.
The workshop attended by scholars and delegates from Ghana, Cote
d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina
Faso, Guinea Bissau, the European Union, France, Benin, UNFPA
and the African Development Bank. Daily Times of Nigeria
also reported on the workshop on March 19. Read: Daily
Times of Nigeria
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