| UNFPA IN THE NEWS - WEEK OF MARCH 29 -
APRIL 4, 2003 UNFPA and the European Union have signed
an agreement to fund EUR22 million ($23.6 million) for a public
healthcare project in seven Asian
countries including Vietnam, according to a March 31 story
by Vietnam News Briefs. The project, to be implemented over
the next three years,
aims to educate vulnerable students, street children and factory
workers about HIV/AIDS, improve the group's access to healthcare
and improve the
capacity of local NGOs to meet the health needs of youth. GLOBAL: UNFPA Concerned About Drop of Resources
for Reproductive Health UNFPA has expressed concern that the world
has dropped further
behind commitments made at a 1994 global conference to invest
$17 billion a
year on population and reproductive health by 2000, according
to an
April 2 story by UN News Centre. Addressing the annual session
of the
Commission on Population and Development on Monday, UNFPA Executive
Director Thoraya Obaid said that the drop between 2000 and 2001
affected
both external assistance and domestic spending by developing
countries."
Given rising demands and HIV/AIDS infections, the mobilization
of
resources is more critical to the success of the Cairo Programme
of
Action and the Millennium Development Goals," Ms. Obaid
said, referring
to the outcome document of the 1994 Population Conference in
Cairo and
the targets set at a UN summit of world leaders in 2000. Read:
UN
News Centre GLOBAL: Funding for Microbicides The Washington
Post reported April 1, "The Bill & Melinda
Gates
Foundation pledged $60 million yesterday toward the development
of
experimental creams, often referred to as invisible condoms,
designed to
prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus among women in developing
countries." The Post noted that International Partnership
for
Microbicides (IPM), based in Silver Spring, MD, created in March
2002
with a $15 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, said
it would
use the money to create a fund, operating much like a venture
capital
firm, to encourage private drug developers and nonprofits to
invest in
product development. So far, it has also secured funding from
the World
Bank, the United Nations Population Fund and the governments
of at least
three countries - Norway, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The
Associated
Press also reported on this story. Read: The
Washington Post and Associated
Press IRELAND: Ireland's EU Involvement Includes
Funding "Reproductive
Health Services" Ireland's Sunday Mirror reported March 30
that although abortion is
illegal in Ireland, taxpayers will be forced to fork out for
the
practice to be carried out in Africa and the Caribbean. The story
cited
a EU law, which is soon to be passed, will require every member
state to
provide financial assistance for what is described as "reproductive
health services." The story also noted that in September
last year, the
EU entered into a partnership with UNFPA and the International
Planned
Parenthood Federation; giving them EUR32 million according to
the EU Commission statement. IRAQ: UNFPA Aids Iraqi Women The Executive Director of UNFPA, Dr. Thoraya
Obaid, told BBC News Online
in a March 29 story: "All too often the needs of women are
neglected in
the rush to provide relief." UNFPA spokesperson William
Ryan said, "This
is a population in dire straits. Pregnancies are frequent and
dangerous
even without the disruption of a war." BBC News noted that
UNFPA says
pregnancy and birth complications are the leading causes of death
for
displaced women and girls in times of upheaval, as health information
and services become less available. Pam DeLargy, head of UNFPA's
Humanitarian Response Unit said, "Over the past few months,
we've
shipped in equipment and supplies to make sure they're pre-positioned
there." Malaysia's New Straits Times also reported on this
story on
April 3. Read: BBC News MALAWI: Strategy to Support Population Policy Malwai's
The Nation reported April 1 that stakeholders in population
issues are meeting in Blantyre until Wednesday to chart the way
forward
for an advocacy strategy to support the implementation of the
new
national population policy. Acting director of the Department
of
Population Services Grace Hiwa also said the population advocacy
program, funded by UNFPA in five-year program phases, also
targets
to
involve men in reproductive health and mobilize resources for
advocacy.
Read: The
Nation SOUTH AFRICA: New Challenge of HIV/AIDS in
Humanitarian Crises In the April 2 story of UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks'
three-part series, it reported that Africa's refugees and displaced
persons face the prospect of a life of poverty, powerlessness
and social
instability: conditions that increase their vulnerability to
HIV/AIDS."
Refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons] are often at
a higher
risk of HIV/AIDS, but often in crises, reproductive health is
put on the
backburner," said Helen Jackson, regional HIV/AIDS advisor
for UNFPA.
According to Dr. Gebreamlak Ogbaselassie, a UNFPA regional adviser
on
sexual and reproductive health, poverty and the food insecurity
crisis
are having a "nightmare" effect on maternal health
in particular. Read: UN
IRIN UNITED STATES: U.S. Funding for Global Fight
against AIDS The U.S. House of Representatives, led by
committee chairman
Henry Hyde,
is seeking $3 billion a year and would funnel up to $1 billion
of that
in the 2004 budget year to the Swiss-based, Global Fund to
Combat AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to an April 1 story by
the Associated Press. AP noted that the White House has questioned
the
efficiency of the fund, even though it recently picked Health
and Human
Services Secretary Tommy Thompson as its chairman, and wants
to give it
only $200 million a year. The Global Fund gives money to the
U.N.
Population Fund, mistrusted by conservative groups because
it
supports
groups that carry out or advise women about abortion. Read: Associated
Press UNITED STATES: Population Connection Discredits
Anti-UNFPA Op Ed by Population Research Institute An April 3 op ed by Brian Dixon,
Director of Government Relations for
Population Connection, that ran in The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg,
VA) stressed, "The charges made against the United Nations
Population
Fund (UNFPA) by the Population Research Institute's president,
Steven
Mosher ['Rep.
Davis: Champion of women, opponent of UNFPA funding,'
March 21], fit an old discredited pattern." Dixon noted: "The
method is
simple. Fabricate a story, lace it with innuendo, and throw mud.
When
objective people see through the lies, repeat them, re-moisten
the mud,
throw it again, and hope it sticks. But the lie that UNFPA supports
coercive abortion in China, or anywhere else, can't be allowed
to stick.
The lives and rights of literally millions of women are at stake." Read: Free
Lance-Star UNITED STATES: 34 Million Friends Campaign The Free Lance-Star
also ran a letter on March 30 by Jane Roberts, co-founder of
the 34 Million Friends Campaign, who returned from
a trip
to Senegal and Mali to see UNFPA's work on site where she talked
to
women whose lives had been saved by Caesareans. She wrote, "I
saw babies
vaccinated and mothers given the means to space their next pregnancies
properly." Her letter also urged, "All people who appreciate
the
reproductive health care we have in this country can share a
little of
their good fortune with the world by sending $1 and asking their
friends
to do the same. Our government may not be participating in the
work of
the UNFPA, but we the people are." Read: Free
Lance-Star The Montreal Gazette (Canada) ran an April
2 column, "Women
Fund UN
Agency Stiffed by U.S.," by Donna Nebenzahl that noted the
Bush
administration, as part of its policy to refuse funds to any
group that
would give women information about abortion, accepted allegations
-
since proved false - that because it operates in China, the UNFPA
supports coercive abortions there. "UNFPA has not, does
not and will not
ever condone or support coercive activities of any kind, anywhere," objected
Executive Director Thoraya Obaid. The denial of these funds,
she said, would affect millions for whom services would no longer
be
available. Simply put: "Women and children will die because
of this
decision." Read: Montreal
Gazette UNITED STATES AND CHINA: China Releases US Human Rights Record
in 2002 In its newly released annual report on global
human rights, the State
Department says the UNFPA has worked "closely" since
1998 with
population control officials in 32 Chinese counties, and that
those
counties enforce a "birth limitation" policy, according
to an April 4
story by CNSNews.com. UNFPA spokesman William Ryan said from
New York
Wednesday afternoon he had not seen the State Department report
and
could not comment on the latest claim, noted CNSNews.com. CNSNews.com
reported that it had offered to email him the report's address
on the
Internet and did so, also highlighting the wording of the claim
relating
to the UNFPA, and invited a response. None was received. Read: CNSNews.com Firing back at the United States' annual report,
China's state-run Xinhua General News Service reported April
3 that the United
States,
taking a negative attitude toward the international human rights
conventions, is one of the only two countries in the world that
have not
ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The
story mentioned that to date, the United States has not ratified
the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against
Women and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural
Rights, which have been ratified or accession by most countries
in the
world. In addition, the story noted that in July 2002, the United
States
withdrew a 34-million-dollar contribution it had promised to
UNFPA,
forcing the UNFPA to cancel its projects of assistance to women
in
countries like Burundi, Algeria, Haiti and India.
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