UNFPA IN THE NEWS—MAY 6-12, 2006

THORAYA AHMED OBAID PROFILED

Arab News ran a May 11 feature story profiling the success and achievements of UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. Arab News described Obaid as a “tireless proponent of women's rights” and noted that Obaid credits experience, family and government support for her success. “I am particularly honored by getting the support of my government, and in particular the support of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, in reaching this position,” Obaid told Arab News during an exclusive interview. Obaid spoke on her unique position to make a difference for women and families around the globe. “My first priority is to improve the lives of women, especially young women, in the developing countries, including the Arab region,” Obaid said. “It's shameful that in the 21st century women still die due to pregnancy and birth-related complications that could be avoided if proper medical care was available to them.” Read: Arab News

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF MIDWIVES

UN News Centre reported May 8 that recruiting midwives, especially in developing countries, could save the lives of 5 million women and prevent 80 million illnesses from pregnancy or childbirth by 2015, according to UNFPA. In a joint statement with the International Confederation of Midwives marking International Day of the Midwife celebrated on May 5, UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said, “Addressing the shortage of midwives through education, training and deployment to underserved areas would bring us much closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health.” The statement also said: “In countries as diverse as Malaysia , Sri Lanka and Tunisia , investments in training, recruiting and retaining midwives, as well as in emergency obstetric care, have reduced maternal death rates. The lives and health of many millions more would be saved with greater investments in midwives.” Read: UN News Centre

Central African Republic: L'Hirondelle and several radio stations reported May 8 on a series of events organized jointly by The National Association of Midwives and UNFPA. The First Lady called on the Governement  to integrate as civil servants those 70 midwives who have been  trained  and who are still waiting for years to be used by the Governement mainly in the country side and to make sure that the existing laws on Emergency Obstetrical Care are applied. A new documentary on the profession of midwifry,showing  the importance of midwives to safe motherhood and the difficulties they are encountering in their daily work, was screened at one of the events. In CAR, one problem is that 90 per cent  of the trained midwives are living in the capital Bangui the capital city whereas 80 per cent  of the population  lives in rural areas.

Malawi: Daily Times reported May 8 that while observing International Day of Midwives, organized by the Association of Malawian Midwives (Amami), it was announced that Malawi only has 4,000 midwives to serve a childbearing population of 2.7 million women. UNFPA sponsored this year's Amami meeting themed, “The World Needs Midwives Now More than Ever.” The Nation reported May 8 that at the celebrations, UNFPA Program Officer Dorothy Lazaro said her agency is also funding programs through the Ministry of Health. Read: Daily Times, The Nation

Mexico: CIMAC NOTICIAS reported May 9 that according to UNFPA, five million women could be saved and 80 million pregnancy and birth complications could be prevented if health systems would share midwives and obstetric nurses. Read: CIMAC NOTICIAS

COLUMN HIGHLIGHTS UNFPA'S GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO END FISTULA

Toronto Star ran a May 10 column on Natalie Imbruglia's efforts to higlight UNFPA's Global Campaign to End Fistula by Carol Goar that asked, “What does it say about us that we'll pay attention to a minor celebrity, yet ignore aid groups, African doctors and representatives of the World Health Organization who have tried to highlight this problem for years?” Goar's column concluded: “ Maybe there is no other way to jolt a media-saturated society into sharing a bit of its wealth. But given our record in the developing world, we might want to take a hard look in the mirror. We've been wrong before. Usually it was because we got so caught up in doing things our way that we lost sight of the people we were trying to help.” Read: Toronto Star

ANTIGUA-BARBUDA ELECTED TO EXECUTIVE BOARD OF UNDP/UNFPA

Caribbean Net News reported May 11 that Antigua and Barbuda beat Panama by a vote of 33 to 19, for a three-year term on the joint Executive Board of UNDP/ UNFPA, at the elections held in the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board is made up of representatives from 36 member states of the U.N., who serve on a rotating basis. The board oversees and supports the activities of UNDP and UNFPA, ensuring that both organizations remain responsive to the evolving needs of their program countries. Antigua and Barbuda 's term will last from January 2007 through December 2009. Read: Caribbean Net News

ARGENTINA: Gender Equality – The Fight for Justice in an Unequal World

Diario Hoy and Rebanadas de Realidad reported May 8 that the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development addressed the question of gender inequality in one of its recent studies, which, with the help of UNFPA, was launched in Buenos Aires on 10 and 11 May. Read: Dario Hoy, Rebanadas de Realidad

ARGENTINA: Women Earn 30 Percent Less Than Men

Clarín reported May 12 that Maria del Carmen Feijoó, UNFPA representative in Argentina , stated that the inequality of wages among men and women demonstrates women's limited access to authority and power. Read: Clarin

AZERBAIJAN: Conference on “Islam Family and Perspectives of Gender Equality”

Trend reported May 11 that an international conference titled “Islam Family and Perspectives of Gender Equality” scheduled for May 12 will include the State Committee on Work with Religious Bodies, the State Committee on Family, Woman and Children Problems and UNFPA. Read: Trend

ASIA: Review of the 2004 Commit Agreement

The Nation (Bangkok) reported May 6 that over 30 senior government officials from the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) countries will attend a meeting in Phnom Penh to review and assess the 2004 Commit agreement. The agreement was signed by GMS countries to catch traffickers and prosecute them, protect victims of trafficking and assist their safe return home. Since its inception, Commit has been funded by Norway , Search, ADB, AusAID, NZAID, CIDA, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNODC, Save the Children UK , World Vision International and the International Organization for Migration. Read: The Nation

EAST AFRICA: 90 Percent of Girls Abused by Relative

IRIN reported May 12 that to coincide with a two-day conference on violence against girls in Africa , African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) will launch a report that reveals that nine out of 10 girls in eastern Africa have suffered physical or psychological abuse, including rape at the hands of relatives. The conference organized in partnership with ACPF, the African Union, UNICEF, UNFPA and Save the Children will gather experts, activists and African leaders to raise awareness of the problem of violence against children. Read: IRIN

BRAZIL: Exhibit Portrays Youngsters Who Changed Their Lives

The Globo TV Network broadcasted on 6 May a news feature on “Chasing the Dream”, a photo exhibit organized by UNFPA in Brazil, presenting young people whose lives changed as a result of social projects helping them to overcome poverty and exclusion. Read: The Globo TV Network

ETHIOPIA: Meeting on Adolescent Reproductive Health Policies

The Daily Monitor reported May 9 from a meeting on adolescent sexual and reproductive health titled, “Framing a Second Generation of Adolescent Reproductive Health Policies: An Opportunity for Ethiopia, jointly organised by UNFPA, Unicef and the Ethiopian government. The meeting was expected to develop a strategy that for the first time would take into account the diversity and heterogeneity of the Ethiopian youth.  Read: Daily Monitor, PanaPress

ETHIOPIA: European Delegation to Visit

The Daily Monitor reported May 7 that UNFPA's office in Ethiopia announced that a delegation of European parliamentarians is scheduled to visit Ethiopia from May 7 to 13. The aim of the mission is to understand development challenges in Ethiopia related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The visit is being jointly organized by UNFPA, Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia, Marie Stopes International in Ethiopia , DSW/Bonita Youth Development Training Centre and a consortium of reproductive health associations. Read: Daily Monitor

GHANA: Openness about Transactional Sex

De Volksrant (Netherlands) ran a story on 13 May addressing the issue of "sex for something", or transactional sex, a phenomenon which is not uncommon among young, mostly poor, people in Ghana, a country where 45 per cent of the people live below $1 a day. Noteworthy however, according to the newspaper, is the openness with which young people talk about sex, including "sex for something". The openness is attributed to a growing recognition since ICPD of the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people that the country has incorporated into the national health system. The importance of the many RH projects supported by UNFPA have been given extra urgency by  the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and  sexual education has become a matter of life and death, the article notes, stating that one lesson to be drawn from this experience for the rest of the world is that openness about sexuality and access to condoms will decrease, not increase the risks for young people. 

HAITI: Census Results Revealed

UN News Centre reported May 10 that Haiti 's first census in 24 years reveals that half of the country is younger than 20, unemployment is a staggering 33 percent and less than half of the school-age children are attending primary school, said UNFPA. “The census offers a map of where the direst needs are in Haiti ,” said UNFPA Country Representative Hernando Clavijo. “The population structure in itself, with an overwhelming majority of young people, means that more resources should be put into education and reproductive health services.” UNFPA also said Haiti 's maternal mortality ratio of 523 deaths per 100,000 live births and its HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of between 4 and 5 percent are the highest in the region. Read: UN News Centre, United Press International, Voice of America, Diario Libre, Hispanidad

INDIA: Female Condoms

Indo-Asian News Service reported May 10 that U.S.-based Female Health Company (FHCO) has received an initial order for 500,000 female condoms through UNFPA for India 's state-run National AIDS Control Organization (NACO). "The condoms will be used in NACO's reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention programs and distribution will initially be focused on commercial sex workers in four high prevalence states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharastra) in India ," said a statement issued by FHCO. Read: Indo-Asian News Service

JORDAN: Goodwill Ambassador Profiled

Jordan Times on May 10 ran a profile of Princess Basma, UNFPA goodwill ambassador, on the occasion of her birthday. The Princess is a long-serving development advocate has worked for over 30 years to promote a wide range of global issues, most notably in the area of sustainable human development. Read: Jordan Times

PHILIPPINES: Population Stabilization to Fight Hunger and Poverty

A May 9 editorial on hunger and poverty by The Philippine Daily Inquirer noted that UNFPA said that the Philippines would remain a poor nation unless it found a more effective way to curb its rapid population growth. The editorial concluded: “It is said that God must love the poor because He made so many of them. But poverty need not be a permanent condition. A civilized and humane nation cannot continue calling itself such if it can sleep soundly at night while millions of its people go to bed without having even a morsel of food during the day.” Read: Philippine Daily Inquirer

PHILIPPINES: New Statistics Should Signal Church of Waning Influence

The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a May 12 column by Amando Dornila warning, “The new statistics [on the Philippines' population growth rate should be] a signal to the Catholic Church, the foremost obstacle to a reasonable management of the country's population explosion, that its influence is waning among the poor in its effort to prevent them from resorting to contraceptives to reduce the number of their children.” Dornila noted, “The main source of contraceptives in the country is foreign donation, particularly from the United Nations Population Fund.” Read: Philippine Daily Inquirer

SIERRA LEONE: Miss University 2006

Concord Times reported May 8 that in keeping with Concord Times Communications' policy for sponsoring Miss University by attaching a social message, this year's theme is “Beauty for Charity.” Last year's pageant was held in collaboration with UNFPA to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and distribute literature and condoms. Read: Concord Times

UKRAINE: World Bank Proposal for TB and HIV/AIDS Project Accepted

EASTBUSINESS.ORG reported May 8 that the Health Ministry approved the World Bank's proposal for a project to fight tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The story noted that the Health Ministry set up a workgroup recommending that Cabinet of Ministers agree to the WB proposal purchasing condoms through UNFPA in keeping with its “Harm Reduction” program.

VIETNAM: Better Adolescent Sex Education Needed

Vietnam News Service reported May 11 on a workshop reviewing 10 years of cooperation on population and adolescent reproductive health education between UNFPA and the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET). Ian Howie, UNFPA representative, said, "The Ministry of Education and Training has made great progress in providing information and dispersing knowledge on population and adolescent reproductive health to the young people of Viet Nam." Workshop participants also said much remains to be done. "Great achievements are evident, but there are still gaps and shortcomings in adolescent reproductive health education in Viet Nam , which are of deep concern," MoET Deputy Minister Tran Van Nhung told the workshop. Read: Vietnam News Service

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