| UNFPA IN THE NEWS – NOVEMBER
15-21, 2003 REPORT: Religious and Faith-Based Groups Find Funding Should
Be Restored Agence France-Presse reported November 20 that
a recent report by a delegation of faith-based organizations
said that funding
to the UNFPA should be restored, and called on the United States
to drop what it said was a "punitive" approach to family
planning in China. "There is no involvement of the UNFPA
in anything that is remotely coercive within China and in fact
they are engaged in creating a quality of care, women centered,
choice oriented programs," said Frances Kissling, president
of Catholics for a Free Choice. We urge the US government to
change its policy and engage more directly and with greater assistance
to the Chinese family planning program. "Will President
Bush turn a deaf ear to the voices of leaders of religious and
faith-based organizations who are not right wing?" Read:
Agence
France-Presse and Catholics for a Free Choice’s press
release FOREIGN AID: Making the Most of It In its November
17 special section, Consider This, The Post-Standard (USA) cited
UNFPA’s report issued last month on investing in
adolescents' health and rights: "Investments in health and
education are among the most cost-effective development expenditures
in terms of the social and private returns they generate. ...
The economic benefit of a single averted HIV/AIDS infection is
estimated at $34,600 for a poor country with annual per capital
earnings of $1,000 per year." AFRICA: Maternal Mortality The Standard Times (Sierra Leone) reported November 18 on the WHO, UNICEF and
UNFPA’s recently released report on maternal
mortality. The story quoted UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya
Ahmed Obaid, as saying, “More lives could be saved if women
had access to voluntary facility planning to ensure that births
are
spaced properly.” Read: Standard Times CARIBBEAN: UNFPA 2003 Media
Awards The Jamaica Observer reported November 19 that
six Caribbean journalists will receive the UNFPA 2003 media awards
this Friday.
The ceremony will be held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel in Jamaica.
The journalists are being rewarded for stories which dealt
with curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS, curbing early initiation
of sexual
activity, fostering behavioral change, promoting gender equality,
ending sexual exploitation (including sex tourism) or dealing
with population, poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Read: Jamaica Observer SOUTH ASIA: Experts Meet on Deteriorating
Reproductive Health Situation Nepal News reported November 21
that senior population experts from South Asia express concern
over the deteriorating situation
of reproductive health in the region at a meeting organized
by Society for International Development–Nepal Chapter in association
with SID-SAN and with the collaborative support of UNFPA, UNICEF
and UNIFEM–New Delhi. “Women don’t have the reproductive rights
as the choice of reproductive health lies on male. So most
of
the pregnancies are unwanted pregnancies in the region,” said
Dr. Nafis Sadik, special guest and special envoy of the UN
secretary general on HIV/AIDS in South Asia, delivering key note
speech.
“The growing conflict in the region not only isolates the women
but it pushes the women in dark.” Washim Zaman, director UNFPA
country Technical Services Team for South and West Asia, said,
“Violence against women in South Asia occurs throughout the
lifecycle and takes all forms- domestic violence, rape and sexual
abuse
and trafficking, honor killings and acid throwing to name a
few. No wonder that compared to demographic expectations there
are
an estimated 60 million missing women in South Asia. “South
Asia is known to be one of the most gender insensitive regions
in
the world. It is the region in the world where women’s life
expectancy at birth is least favorable compared to that of men.”
Read: Nepal
News ANGOLA: Seminar on Sensitizing Administrators
on Population and Development Angola News Agency reported November
20 that fourteen municipal administrators in the northern Malanje
province and some provincial
delegates are participating in a seminar on awareness and consciousness
about population and development. The seminar organized by the
Ministry of Planning and UNFPA aims to sensitize participants
on the need to call the government's attention to population
and development. UNPFA's project official, José Ribeiro,
announced a program to reduce poverty and improve the living
standard will be implemented in the near future. Read: Angola
News Agency GHANA: Will Arrests Stop Female Genital Mutilation? The
Ghanaian Chronicle reported November 19 that a 1999 study by
the Population Impact Project at the University of Ghana estimated
that 69.1% of women in the Wa district have had their genitals
cut. Despite this reported prevalence, authorities have arrested
less than 10 people since (female genital mutilation) FGM became
illegal in 1994. Given the lack of resources to conduct intensive
investigations, the police often rely on informants to catch
perpetrators of FGM. Pat Sutinga, a midwife and nurse in the
children's ward of Wa District Hospital, believes that public
sensitization and the threat of imprisonment have deterred
some parents from having their daughters cut. However, Sutinga
admits
that she is not able to examine all girls in the region. Only
nine percent of women in the northern regions give birth with
the assistance of a trained health care worker, according to
the United Nations Population Fund. If they do give birth in
the hospital, most villagers receive their post-natal care
in local clinics, out of Sutinga's reach. However, she says,
the
clinics send monthly reports to the hospital without ever mentioning
FGM. Read: Ghanaian Chronicle GUINEA: Appeal for Aid for Refugees The United
Nations office in Guinea on Wednesday launched an appeal for
US $38 million, mainly to address problems affecting
vulnerable groups and communities that host thousands of refugees
and displaced people in 2004, Herve Ludovic de Lys, head of
the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
told
UN IRIN in a November 19 story. Several agencies including
the FAO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, OCHA and WHO, made
the
joint appeal. Read: UN IRIN INDIA: Male-Child Preference Spreading
to Various Levels of Society The Scotsman (United Kingdom) reported
November 16 that a new report published by UNFPA has revealed
that the practice of female
feticide, in which an unborn baby is aborted or killed at birth
simply because it is not a boy, is now spreading from India’s
poor and rural classes to affluent urban families. Read: The
Scotsman IRAQ: Report on Plight of Iraqi Women A New
York Times November 19 column by Nicholas Kristof mentioned that
a new report by the U.N. Population Fund offers a devastating
portrait of the plight of Iraqi women since the war. Contraceptive
use has fallen because of supply breakdowns, unsafe abortions
are increasing, sexual abductions are on the rise, and a combination
of poor security and hospital looting has left many women without
access to medical care. "Treatment of problems, such as
sexually transmitted infections, breast and cervical cancer,
is now impossible," the report declares. Read: New York
Times NIGERIA: OsunState Contributes to UNFPA Program This
Day (Nigeria) reported November 19 that OsunState government
has approved the release of N72 million cash contribution towards
the implementation of the development programs by UNFPA. Governor
Olagunsoye Oyinlola praised UNFPA saying, "The organization
has among other, succeeded in sensitizing the people to the various
issues associated with population and healthy living.” He added,
“Through the financial and technical support of UNFPA, the capacities
of many a good number of public officers in the state have been
enhanced." Read: This Day NIGERIA: Sprawling Lagos Spreads
to the Water On November 18 Agence France-Presse featured
a story on Makoko, Nigeria’s version of the canals of Venice
where people
escape
crowded Lagos for more space and less pollution. The story
reported Nigeria's 126 million inhabitants make it the most populous
nation
in Africa. Some 14 million of them are jammed into Lagos, the
country's commercial capital and the sixth-largest city in
the world, according to the U.N. Population Fund. Despite sprawling
traffic jams, fuel shortages and a lack of electricity and
running
water, people keep moving in. Lagos will be the third-biggest
city by 2015, with 23 million residents, the United Nations
predicts. NORTH KOREA: AID Agencies Appeal for International
Aid Associated Press reported November 20 that
a group of U.N. agencies is asking for $221 million in international
aid for
North Korea,
where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have
put the country in a state of "chronic emergency," said
Rick Corsino, director of the World Food Program in North Korea.
Fifteen U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations launched
the appeal inGeneva on Wednesday, Corsino said. The Rome-based
WFP is asking for $192 million; UNICEF $12.7 million; the World
Health Organization $7 million; the Food and Agriculture Organization
$3 million; and the U.N. Population Fund $672,000. Read: Associated
Press SIERRA LEONE: Census to Be Conducted Agence
France-Presse reported November 19 that Sierra Leone, emerging
from a decade of civil war and considered the world's
poorest country by the United Nations, is to conduct its first
nationwide population census in 18 years, a senior official said
John Pessima, the deputy statistician general. Cartographic fieldwork
is currently being conducted by UNFPA, which will fund the census. "The
census will enable the government to plan for the people," UNFPA
project officer Vandi Sovula said. "It is very important
for the development of the country." UNITED STATES: 34 Million
Friends of UNFPA Women’s Enews reported November 17 that Jane
Roberts, co-founder of 34 Million Friends of UNFPA, has hit the
road again. "I
am going around and I am talking about this idealistic grassroots
campaign to save women's lives, to reduce women's misery," she
said in a recent telephone interview in California before setting
out early this month on a grueling trip across Canada, the Midwest
and the East Coast, where she will visit college campuses from
Virginia to Maine. On Nov. 4, she spoke at ColumbiaUniversity
in New York. Read: Women’s Enews ZAMBIA: Census Shows Early Deaths
Hit Adults Xinhua General News Service reported November
19 that the local newspaper Times of Zambia noted many Zambians
today are dying
at their productive age, with women succumbing more to social
and economic pressures than men. The final results of the 2000
Census of Population and Housing indicated that adult survivorship
levels have deteriorated between 1990 and 2000, with more people
dying at the age of 15 years and over. The story mentioned
that
UNFPA Country Representative Margaret O'Callaghan said the
2000 census had presented a challenge to the Zambian government
and
all its partners.
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