UNFPA IN THE NEWS – OCTOBER 2-8, 2004

STATE OF WORLD POPULATION 2004 REPORT

Ghana: Public Agenda (Ghana) reported October 4 that at the launch of UNFPA’s State of World Population report, Professor A. F. Aryee of the Population Impact Project at the University of Ghana said most developing countries have incorporated population concerns in their development and poverty reduction strategies. Aryee said many have established policies to protect women and girls' rights, improve facilities and integrate reproductive health services into primary health care. Read: Public Agenda

Jamaica: Jamaica Observer reported October 7 that according to UNFPA’s 2004 State of World Population Report, launched in Kingston, Jamaica has made significant improvements in mortality, education and reproductive health. Read: Jamaica Observer

United States: The Boston Globe (U.S.) October 6 editorial noted that UNFPA’s State of World Population report emphasizes the circular nature of global poverty. There is no linear cause-and-effect between rapid population growth and poverty, ill health, or ignorance, the report suggests. Rather, poverty both perpetuates and is exacerbated by poor maternal health, gender discrimination, and lack of access to birth control. And yet the self-described right-to-life movement has obstructed the U.N.'s plan at every turn. In the United States, the Bush administration, professing concern that the U.N.'s population fund supports abortion, has frozen America's contribution for three years running—even though a 1973 law expressly prohibits any U.S. money from being used for abortion services overseas. Read: Boston Globe

ARGENTINA: Government Forging Ahead with Reproductive Health Policies

Inter Press Service reported October 6 that the Argentine government is forging ahead with a strong agenda of sexual and reproductive health policies that is in line with demands by women's groups. Representative of UNFPA in Argentina, María del Carmen Feijoó, said the country's new stance is welcome and that it shows how important political leadership is when it comes to moving forward on social issues. “This is absolutely exceptional for Argentina, because in the 1990s, at each international forum, objections were raised (by this country) to block any advances on this issue,” she told IPS. “But this year Argentina has not only fallen into step with the rest of the region, but is making progress in terms of compliance with the internationally adopted targets and commitments.” Read: Inter Press Service

ARMENIA: Poster Contest to Commemorate ICPD 10th Anniversary

ARMINFO reported October 5 that UNFPA, in cooperation with the Armenian Center of International Union of Puppeteers, "UNIMA Armenia," is holding a contest of posters to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the international conference on population and development. The organizers reported that over 100 works of young artists took part in the contest.

ASIA AND AFRICA: Efforts Increased to Lower Obstetric Fistula

Xinhua General News Service reported October 5 that UNFPA has scaled up efforts to lower the rate of obstetric fistula, which has caused untold misery to women in Africa and Asia, a UNFPA official said. Speaking at the ongoing Third Regional Reproductive Health Task Force meeting, UNFPA's regional reproductive health advisor, Fatma Mrisho, said the campaign seeks to raise awareness on the issue, conduct needs assessment and expand services for prevention and treatment. "The global campaign's aim is to highlight the importance of emergency obstetric care for all pregnant women in a bid to make fistula as rare in Africa and Asia as it is in the industrialized world. Emphasis is on prevention, which is key to elimination," she said.

CHINA: Revision of Family Planning Policies Weighed

The Wall Street Journal (U.S.) reported October 4 that China is weighing an overhaul of its controversial family planning policies, worried that the rule limiting many couples to one child has become socially and economically counterproductive. The story noted: “China's total population is more than 1.31 billion and growing at a rate of 0.7% a year, according to the United Nations Population Fund. By comparison, India, which also faces problems of gender imbalance because of a preference for sons and increased ability to determine a child's sex before birth, has a total population of more than 1.06 billion with an annual growth rate of 1.5%.” Read: Wall Street Journal

FIJI: Reproductive Health Programs Incorporated into Primary School

Fiji Times reported October 7 that teachers were told that reproductive health programs will be introduced into the primary school curriculum as early as next year. Dr. Rufina Latu, the adviser on adolescent health at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, said they were working with the Ministry of Education to introduce adolescent reproductive health issues as a subject in school. "The SPC and UNFPA are trying to implement reproductive health programs in Fiji and eight other island nations because of the increasing health issues affecting our young people." Read: Fiji Times

GEORGIA: Country Director Speaks about UNFPA Activities

The Messenger (Georgia) reported October 4 that UNFPA held a conference on its activities in Georgia, which was attended by UNFPA Country Director for Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, government officials and partner organizations. "UNFPA will continue to focus on improving access to and information about reproductive health services in Georgia. Many high impact and low cost activities are on-going and we have excellent collaboration with government, NGOs and donors. The new country program will support new government priorities," Albrectsen said. Read: The Messenger

GHANA: Parents Urged to Take Polio Immunization Seriously

Ghana News Agency reported October 4 that the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Health Services, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah said polio affects the respiratory system which leads to death, and charged parents to take immunization days seriously and have their children immunized against the disease. Dr. Nang-Beifubah said this when he closed a two-week training workshop for 23 community-based reproductive health promoters in Bolgatanga, organized by Rural Health Integrated and sponsored by UNFPA. Read: Ghana News Agency

INDIA: Contraceptive Use

In an October 4 story by India Today, it mentioned that according to UNFPA, less than 7 percent of Indian couples use the acknowledged spacing methods such as oral contraceptives, condoms and intra-uterine devices. A large chunk of Indian couples, of course, do not use any method of contraception at all, despite the fact that 71 percent of them know about condoms.

LIBERIA: Workshop for People Living with AIDS

The Inquirer (Liberia) reported October 4 that at a one-day UNFPA sponsored workshop held for over 150 participants of the Organization for Children and Adolescent Mothers, Assistant Counselor at the ELWAHospital, Bee Mason, said that AIDS is indeed real and it is in Liberia. The workshop was designed for those living with AIDS under the theme, "Living the Experience." Read: The Inquirer

MALAYSIA: Health Services Well-Provided

Bernama (Malaysia) reported October 5 that the Health Ministry's Family Health Development Director, Dr Narimah Awin, said Malaysia was recognized as an Islamic nation that provides its citizens with better health care compared to other countries. Lee Kah Choon, Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary, urged the public to make full use of the health clinics in Kepala Batas, Seberang Prai, Sepang, Selangor, Ipoh, Shah Alam, Lawin, Ulu Perak, Pasir Mas, Kota Baru and Penang, the cost of which was being borne by the United Nations Population Fund.

PHILIPPINES: Poverty Pushes Rural Population into the City

ABS-CBN News (Philippines) reported October 7 that the pressure of poverty in the countryside has increased urbanization in the Philippines, making it the most urbanized country in Southeast Asia and one of the world’s fastest urbanizing countries. This was contained in a report prepared by the Philippine Commission on Population and the United Nations Population Fund. Read: ABS-CBN News

PHILIPPINES: Hunger Predicted More Problematic with Growing Population

Business World (Philippines) reported October 7 that more Filipinos would go hungry unless the government curbs the population boom by providing supplies and information on contraception, said UNFPA country representative, Zahidul Huque. The Manila Times (Philippines) also reported on this story. Read: Manila Times

PHILIPPINES: Health Secretary Booed for Using Outdated Facts

Business World (Philippines) reported October 5 that Department of Health Secretary Manuel M. Dayrit was booed and heckled by the participants in the national conference on population and development for his claims that local health clinics had abundant, but "underutilized," contraceptive supplies. Zahidul Huque, UNFPA country representative, said some of Mr. Dayrit's figures were "pretty old" and were culled from U.N. global estimates. He said that Mr. Dayrit should have used data from the Philippines and the National Statistics Office.

UGANDA: Support for Young Mothers Education

New Vision (Uganda) reported October 4 that Henry Wako Muloki has asked schools and policy-makers in the education sector to come up with a policy that promotes re-integration of adolescent mothers into school. Muloki said some adolescent mothers who were re-integrated into school excelled. He also thanked the African Youth Alliance and UNFPA for addressing the challenges adolescents face.

UNITED STATES: Bush Withholds Funding for UNFPA

Reuters reported October 2 that President Bush withheld $25 million in funding yesterday from the U.N. Population Fund in a move likely to appeal to its opponents. The Bush administration has denied more than $90 million to the U.N. Population Fund since 2002 at the urging of conservative groups and lawmakers, who insist that the fund contributes to abortion in China through its association with the Beijing government. The fund, which works with family planning and reproductive health organizations in more than 140 countries, said that none of its activities led to coercive abortion in China. Sarah Craven, who heads the fund's Washington office, said the organization ran a $3 million China project that has helped reduce the abortion rate from 24 percent to 10 percent in areas it serves by educating women about contraceptives. She said the fund had also agreed that no U.S. tax dollars would go directly to the China project. Read: Reuters

An October 8 editorial by Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (U.S.) noted: “The Bush administration announced in July that it would again withhold money Congress approved for the United Nations Population Fund. Refusing to supply the money is certainly an effort to appeal to the president’s conservative supporters opposing abortion, but could actually result in an increase in abortions in developing countries.” The editorial concluded, “The United States needs to restore its contribution to the Population Fund.” Read: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

An October 4 column by Susan Lenfestey in The Star Tribune (U.S.) noted, “Security moms, the women who are said to be sliding over into President Bush's camp out of fear for the safety of their children, should take a better look at the man who is courting them.” She mentioned: “For the past three years the Bush administration has also denied $34 million annually in funding for the U.N. Population Fund, which provides birth control, maternal and child health care, and HIV/AIDS prevention services for women in some of the world's most impoverished regions. This money could have prevented an estimated 2 million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 induced abortions and 4,700 maternal deaths, as well as 77,000 infant and child deaths each year.” Read: Star Tribune

Salon.com ran an October 4 column by Cathleen Miller that noted: “The Bible makes many references to the use of ‘sacrificial lambs,’ young animals offered up to God to atone for the sins of the people. You may have thought this practice had fallen out of favor, but it seems George W. Bush has resurrected the sacrificing of the innocent to atone for his political sins.” Miller continued: “However, his offerings are disproportionately of one gender: girls and women from the planet's poorest nations. By his decision to cancel aid for three years in a row to the U.N. Population Fund, which supports the reproductive health rights of women around the world, he has willingly sacrificed millions of innocent female lives. This was made abundantly clear by global healthcare professionals at the recent Countdown 2015 conference in London, which examined the progress of the U.N.'s watershed Cairo summit on population and development in 1994.” Read: Salon.com

UNITED STATES AND SWEDEN: Aid Minister Criticizes Bush

Associated Press reported October 3 that Sweden's aid minister criticized the Bush administration for withholding millions of dollars in congressionally approved assistance to the U.N. Population Fund because it felt the fund helped China manage programs that involved forced abortions. "The fund has been accused of this before, and there is proof that it is not true," Carin Jaemtin, Sweden's minister for International Development Cooperation, told public radio.

VIETNAM: UNFPA Funds Improvement of Reproductive Healthcare

Voice of Vietnam reported October 6 that UNFPA has provided $482,000 for a two-year project to improve reproductive healthcare and gender equality services in 11 cities and provinces and seven consultative centers. The project aims to strengthen the management capacity and personnel training for over 100 staff members of the Family Planning Associations in 11 proposed localities, including Hanoi, Hai Phong port city, Quang Ninh, Bac Giang, Hoa Binh, Thai Binh, Ninh Binh in the north, Quang Binh, Thua Thien-Hue, Da Nang city and Binh Dinh in the central. Read: Voice of Vietnam, Vietnam News Agency

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