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UNFPA GLOBAL POPULATION POLICY UPDATE
Issue 53 - 16 June 2005
On 6-7 June 2005, over 80 parliamentarians and ministers from the
G8 countries, Europe and Africa attended the G8 International Parliamentarians'
Conference on Development in Africa 2005, hosted by the Scottish
Parliament and organized by the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum
on Population and Development (IEPFPD), Interact Worldwide, the
Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and the World Bank.
The participants at the meeting discussed at length recommendations
for the upcoming G8 Summit on 6-8 July in Gleneagles, Scotland,
on ways to tackle problems facing Africa. While special attention
was paid to HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, the conference
examined other development issues of specific concern to Africa
including, partnership and leadership; poverty and hunger; good
governance; aid, trade and debt relief; conflict situations; environmental
sustainability; and education and health.
At the conclusion of the conference, the parliamentarians adopted
the Edinburgh Declaration, which calls for the leaders of the G8
countries to take action in six areas: improving the quality and
quantity of aid to Africa; strengthening African capacity to benefit
from the international trading system; agreeing on ways to expand
debt relief; placing women's rights at the heart of development
policy; addressing the specific health burdens of African countries;
and strengthening partnership with African-led initiatives.
The Declaration also called for the G8 countries to advance the
linkage between reproductive health and HIV/AIDS as well as support
the addition of the target of universal access to reproductive health
by 2015, under the Millennium Development Goal on Maternal Health,
in the outcome document of the 2005 World Summit to be held on 14-16
September at the United Nations General Assembly. Moreover, it set
forth concrete actions to be taken by parliamentarians from both
the G8/European countries and from Africa to follow up on the outcome
of the conference.
The parliamentarians also endorsed a letter addressed to the U.K.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and the U.S. President George W. Bush
in support of doubling aid by 2010, reducing tariff rates for agricultural
products and canceling debt for Africa.
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DECLARATION
EDINBURGH DECLARATION
We - parliamentarians from G8, European and African
countries - met in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 -7 June 2005 for the
G8 International Parliamentarians' Conference on Development in
Africa 2005. Our aim was to agree on concrete, realistic and measurable
recommendations addressing the development needs of Africa, with
a particular focus on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health
and rights, in the context of aid, trade, debt relief and conflict
resolution.
Africa needs urgent attention. The number of people living in extreme
poverty on the continent has almost doubled, from 164 million in
1981 to 314 million today. In Africa, half the population lives
on less than $1 a day, while 40 million children are not able to
go to school. In 2005, three million people will become infected
with HIV while a further two million people will die of AIDS-related
illnesses. HIV/AIDS has reversed development progress, reducing
life expectancy to less than 40 years in nine African countries.
Based on current estimates, Sub-Saharan Africa will not meet any
of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
Women need to be at the heart of development policies. This means
providing access to education, economic opportunities, resources,
decision-making authority, comprehensive health services, including
for reproductive health; fighting the cultural obstacles to women's
advancement, and ensuring the equal participation of women in political,
economic and social spheres.
For all its complex challenges, the African continent has enormous
potential. Last year, African economies recorded their fastest growth
in 30 years. Eritrea, Senegal and Uganda have shown that HIV/AIDS
can be fought if given more support.
African countries and their international partners must build on
this progress. The time for political action is now. 2005 is a make
or break year for development. The Commission for Africa has, and
July's G8 Summit at Gleneagles, and September's UN conference on
Millennium Development Goals must all attest to a renewed commitment
to defeat poverty and advance services for basic health, with heightened
priority to sexual and reproductive health. We must seize this opportunity
to improve the lives of Africa's 906 million people.
G8 ACTION POINTS
We call on the leaders of the world's wealthiest countries
meeting at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles to take action in six areas:
- Improve the quality and quantity of aid to Africa.
* That G8 countries immediately commit to a timetable for the doubling
of aid to Africa by 2010;
* That G8 countries commit to national timetables towards the allocation
of 0.7 percent of their gross national income in official development
assistance (ODA) - as set out in the Monterrey commitments - before
2015;
* That the increase in aid is accounted for independently of debt
relief and emergency assistance;
* That G8 countries improve the quality of aid (i.e. making it more
predictable, untied, aligned with developing country priorities,
harmonized, transparent and accountable);
* That G8 countries act to implement the February 2005 Paris Declaration
on Aid Effectiveness, which defines 12 indicators for monitoring
aid delivery and management;
* That G8 countries devote 10 percent of their ODA to population,
and reproductive health and rights programs;
* That aid prioritise the empowerment of women and promotion of
gender equality. There must be better indicators to monitor improved
gender equality and aid negotiations must involve women;
- Strengthen African capacity to benefit from the international
trading system.
* That G8 countries eliminate agricultural export subsidies and
commit to substantially reducing tariff rates for agricultural products;
* That G8 countries assist African countries to build their own
capacity to trade and strengthen their domestic agricultural markets
including improving transport and communications;
* That G8 countries ensure that the World Trade Organization's Hong
Kong ministerial meeting in December must see real progress for
the Doha Development Round;
* That G8 countries support efforts to ensure the full and equitable
participation of women in economic development, through the provision,
for example, of micro-credit programs and access to business education
training;
* That G8 countries support NEPAD's agriculture-led Poverty Reduction
Strategy and use the comprehensive African Agriculture Development
Program (CAADP) as a common framework for assistance to the agricultural
sector.
- Agree on ways to expand debt relief.
* That G8 countries commit to eliminating the unsustainable bilateral
and multilateral debt of the poorest countries;
* That G8 countries consider new and innovative mechanisms to finance
debt relief that neither create future liabilities nor detract from
existing ODA;
* That resources generated by debt cancellation are equitably distributed
and meet the needs of the most marginalized, particularly women;
- Placing women's rights at the heart of development policy.
* That G8 countries support African Governments to ensure the equal
participation of women in all aspects of social, political and economic
life. In particular, measures should be put in place to close the
gender gap in earnings and to provide better legal and social protection
for women in the workplace;
* That G8 countries support African led efforts to create an enabling
legislative environment for women's rights. Measures to protect
and promote sexual and reproductive health and rights and to mitigate
gender based violence must be included in national and regional
policies and implemented effectively by legislation;
* That G8 countries support African states to immediately meet MDG
3, the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary
education. Special emphasis should be placed on the retention of
girls in education and the elimination of socio-economic barriers
which often force girls to drop out of school;
- Address the specific health burdens of African countries.
* That G8 countries support, including through increased funding,
the implementation of the "Three Ones" to improve the
coordination and harmonization of efforts to address HIV/AIDS through
the complete continuum of prevention, (including exploring new technologies
), treatment and care;
* That G8 countries advance the linkage of sexual and reproductive
health and rights programs in health sector development, including
within the response to HIV/AIDS and maternal, newborn and child
health;
* That G8 countries support national programs to reduce stigma regarding
HIV/AIDS in particular, and sexual and reproductive health matters
in general;
* That G8 countries take collaborative steps with African States
and with donor partners to strengthen health systems to ensure universal
access to basic health services and supplies, including services
to promote maternal and child health, support reproductive health
and combat the killer diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria;
and particularly take steps addressing human resource issues such
as policies and actions supporting the recruitment, training and
retention of skilled medical personnel;
* That G8 countries support the addition of the target of universal
access to reproductive health by 2015, under the Improve Maternal
Health MDG, with appropriate indicators through the relevant technical
process, to capture women's health issues beyond mortality prevention
- also recognizing its importance to promoting gender equality,
combating HIV/AIDS, reducing child mortality and eradicating poverty;
* The G8 countries support intensified efforts for the provision
of effective interventions to address malaria, tuberculosis and
other neglected diseases;
- Strengthen partnership with African-led initiatives.
* Africans must lead efforts to tackle the development challenges
of Africa by investing in their people, empowering African women,
supporting sustainable development and agriculture, building effective
nations and good governance, promoting peace and security, and developing
the private sector. G8 and other donors must follow the African
lead;
* African countries must work to strengthen the participation of
civil society in public life, policy dialogue, and improving governance
and accountability;
* G8 leaders must reaffirm their support for African-led initiatives
such as the Africa Union, the New Economic Partnership for Africa
(NEPAD), and the Pan-African Parliament, as well as the newly-created
Pan-African Parliamentary Committee on Population and Development;
* G8 leaders must call on the Executive Boards of the World Bank
and the IMF to refuse to consider any Poverty Reduction Strategy
that has not yet been debated by parliament.
PARLIAMENTARY ACTION POINTS.
As representatives of the people, as legislators and as government
overseers, we must do our outmost to support this action agenda.
Depending on our parliamentary systems, those of us from G8 and
European countries should:
* Hold government leaders to account on their commitments through
annual parliamentary special sessions on Africa and sexual and reproductive
health and rights, beginning with a "G8 Implementation Watch
Session" in early autumn 2005. This will include calling on
governments to outline concrete steps to be taken to deliver on
financial commitments made at Gleneagles and past international
gatherings such as the 2002 Monterrey Conferences on Financing for
Development.
* Write to heads-of-state and ministers detailing the outcomes of
this Parliamentary Conference and call for actions outlined by the
declaration to be implemented.
* Request to be included in government consultations surrounding
September's Speakers' of Parliaments World Conference, the UN Millennium
Development Goals Summit in September 2005, and the UN General Assembly
Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2006, and to be included on relevant
delegations.
* Introduce parliamentary resolutions reaffirming support for, and
solidarity with, Africa's people.
* Advocate and program for sexual and reproductive health and rights
both domestically and in our development policies using this declaration
as a discussion point.
* Engage partner organizations to join in mobilizing constituents,
the media and civil society representatives on Africa's development
challenges, using this declaration as a discussion point.
* Report back on any parliamentary actions taken to support this
declaration to the October 2005 Sixth Annual Conference of the Parliamentary
Network on the World Bank in Helsinki, and to the Annual Council
meeting of the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population
and Development and the International Parliamentarian's Conference
on Implementation of the ICPD Program of Action, both in 2006.
Depending on our parliamentary systems, those of us from African
countries should:
* Call on governments to strengthen the African Union and NEPAD,
with special attention given to implementation of NEPAD's Peer Review
Mechanisms.
* Demand a stronger voice in the design and implementation of Poverty
Reduction Strategies.
* Promote greater accountability and transparency within government
systems.
Finally, we thank the Scottish Parliament for hosting the conference,
and the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development,
Interact Worldwide, the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank,
and the World Bank for organizing the meeting.
All previous issues of the UNFPA Global
Population Policy Update can now be found on UNFPA's website at:
http://www.unfpa.org/parliamentarians/news/newsletters.htm
.
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This newsletter is issued
by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in its capacity as
secretariat for the biennual International Parliamentarians' Conference
on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (IPCI/ICPD).
The first IPCI/ICPD was held in November 2002 in Ottawa, Canada
and the second in October 2004 in Strasbourg, France. These dispatches
are intended to highlight important developments taking place around
the world so that parliamentarians can be kept informed of and learn
from the successes, setbacks and challenges encountered by their
fellow parliamentarians in other countries and regions in their
efforts to promote the implementation of the Programme of Action
of the International Conference on Population and Development (September
1994, Cairo, Egypt). It should be noted that UNFPA does not necessarily
endorse all of the policies described in this newsletter.
Please send mailing list update information to Ragaa Said at said@unfpa.org . If you have any questions or comments on the content of this newsletter, please contact Harumi Kodama at kodama@unfpa.org or Safiye Cagar at cagar@unfpa.org . |
