| UNFPA in the News: Week of May 17-23,
2003 Irish MEP Dana Scallon voiced dismay
over a report that Development Commissioner Poul
Nielson has established a unit in his department to monitor anti-abortion campaigners,
according to a May 21 story byThe European Voice.Scallon has been outspoken against
the
Commission's funding of UNFPA and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
Both
organizations provide reproductive health services in poor countries and have
come under
attack from the ‘pro-life’ lobby for allegedly promoting abortion. According
to Scallon, the unit's
work would amount to "insidious ‘Big Brother' intimidation." The story
noted the Commission
insists that it does not promote abortion as a means of family planning, but
that it is committed
to making contraceptives available in poor countries, so that unwanted pregnancies
and
sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented. Inter Press Service reported May 21 that Cuba's
highly successful social programs, long
praised by U.N. agencies, are being threatened with possible funding cuts because
of
Havana's recent crackdown on political dissidents. According to a Western European
diplomat,
“The signals coming out of EU headquarters in Brussels are not very good.” The
story
mentioned programs, including population activities, adult literacy, health care,
life expectancy
and primary and secondary education, are financed primarily by Western donors,
including
Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Italy and France.Rome has
already
hinted it will not re-fund the human development programs during the 2003-2007
cycle.“During
the current funding cycle (1997-2003) UNFPA activities in Cuba amount to $ 4.5
million while
UNDP funding totals about $ 37.9 million. In a seven-page report released last
week, the
UNFPA says that Cuba has faced serious economic constraints since 1990 because
of a
breakdown in relations with its former leading trade partners, the dissolved
Soviet Union and
the Eastern European bloc, the U.S. economic embargo and Havana's exclusion from
many
international markets under U.S. pressure. IPS mentioned due to remarkable reductions
in
fertility and mortality, population ageing has become a prominent demographic
feature," the
UNFPA said. India will be on the list of water-stressed
countries by the year 2025 when nearly half the world
population will experience water shortage, according to a May 17 story byThe
Hindu.
Researchers at The Energy and Resources Institute, with funding from UNFPA,tried
to
understand the linkages between population and water by carrying out a survey
at the national
and village levels to ascertain the impact of population growth on water resources
and that of
availability of water and water quality on the life of the people, particularly
women and children.
Read:The Hindu Kabar reported May 21 that UNFPA in Kyrgyzstan
is preparing to hand over humanitarian aid
to landslide sufferers in Kara-Taryk village, Uzgen region of Osh Oblast. The
aid includes
vitamins, medicine, sets for newborn child and others. The story noted UNFPA
has worked in
Kyrgyzstan since 1992 and includes two subprograms – reproductive health and
population
development strategy. A May 21 story byThe Daily Trust reported that
over the years, the achievements of the health
ministry can be traced largely to the role and commitment of successive administrations
as well
as the role of international agencies such asUNFPA, UNICEF, USAID, WHO and ADB.
The
governor-elect, Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, has said on several occasions
that he
would provide free health services for vulnerable groups especially children
and the elderly, with
special emphasis in diseases prevention measures. Read:Daily Trust
According to a May 20 story byThe Vanguard,
the status of water supply in Nigeria is
characterized by low level coverage, weak political commitment, inappropriate
technology, a
lack of operation and maintenance of existing water schemes and gross lack of
sense of
belonging by the people.Vanguard noted worse still, the apparent low level of
water supply is
often indicated as a major cause of poor health and death from infectious disease
in children
under five years of age arising from onset of water-borne diseases including
malaria, diarrhea
diseases, tetanus, cholera, typhoid, and schistosomiasis. In a report entitled "Solutions
for a
Water-Short World",UNFPAranks Nigeria along with 17 other water-stressed
countries
including Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Peru, as the nations most likely to run
short of water by
2025. Read:Vanguard Asia-Plus Information Agency reported May 23
that Independent Radio Station Asia-Plus
launched a cycle of half-hourly programs on reproductive health of population.
As Daler
Nurkhanov, Executive Director of the Asia-Plus Radio Station, said this event
organized in
cooperation with the UNFPA office in Dushanbe, Tajikistan is designed for one
and half
months. "The programs will be run in Tajik and Russian" alternately
twice a week", Nurkhanov
said. He said they invited known researchers and practical specialists in healthcare,
psychology, and teaching to take part in those programs. According to him, the
main objective
of the programs is in propagating healthy mode of life, dissemination of knowledge
of
demographic policy of the country, informing population, first of all youth,
of danger of falling ill
with AIDS and other diseases, methods of preserving from infection. The Youth Committee under the Tajikistan government,
UNFPA office in Tajikistan and the
Gender and Development Public Association opened a youth center in the Tajik
southern city of
Kulob, the Asia-Plus reported May 22. As Viloyat Mirzoyeva, chairwoman of the
Gender and
Development Public Association, told Asia-Plus it is already the fourth such
a center in the
republic. According to her, the Center will be engaged in solving issues related
to reproductive
health and family planning. On May 23,The New York Times ran a letter by
Katha Pollitt that responded to Nicolas
Kristof’s May
16 column about obstetric fistulas. Pollitt noted that Kristof
“takes
an unjustified
swipe when he speculates that the ‘issue doesn't galvanize women's groups because
fistulas
relate to a traditional child-bearing role.’” She wrote, “Most people concerned
with this issue
are feminists, in particular those in the international women's health movement.
And who, if not
feminists, is sending in those dollars to the United Nations Population Fund
to prevent fistulas
and other maternity-related ills?” Read: New
York Times According to a May 18 segment by Weekend All
Things Considered on National Public Radio
(USA), for years high school students have participated in Model UN programs
and they've
debated the world's problems themselves. Now those programs are reaching inner-city
schools, as NPR's Margot Adler learned at the Model UN conference in New York
City. Adler
mentioned the liveliest moments took place in hallway caucuses. Outside a door
marked 'UN
Population Fund,’ a group of students wrote resolutions and argued about the
power of NGOs,
non-government organizations. Listen: Weekend All Things Considered FOX News.com featured a May 19 commentary on
Bush’s $15 billion AIDS bill by Wendy
McElroy, a conservative, that mentioned: “In his haste, Bush may be forgetting
a lesson. In July
2002, the Bush administration withheld $34 million from the United Nations Population
Fund
largely due to the U.N.'s probable complicity in China's forced abortion policy.”
McElroy stated,
“The lesson: In the last decades, global agencies and policies have become vehicles
to impose
political correctness, especially gender feminism, on nations in need.” Read:
FOX
News.com On May 17,The Times of Zambia reported once
permanent peace is finally achieved in
neighboring Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and once the earmarked
Solwezi-Chavuma Road is finally tarred, the area will become the country's lucrative
trade zone.
Because of this possible development, stakeholders such asUNFPA, the government
and an
intricate network of non-governmental organizations along with other bilateral
partners, are
concerned about the destiny of the area. Realizing the need to secure, especially
the young
generation there, UNFPA, government and the NGOs, many of whom fall under the
NGO
Coordinating Committee, have decided to join hands in the province. A program
dubbed"UNFPA/GRZ/NGOs Reproductive Health Partnership Project" was
recently
launched in
Solwezi, in which the partners are expected to focus on HIV/AIDS prevention.
Read: Times of
Zambia 
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