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UNFPA GLOBAL POPULATION POLICY UPDATE
Issue 15 - January 30 2004
As a follow-up to the first International Parliamentarians' Conference on
the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (IPCI, held 21-22 November
2002, in Ottawa, Canada), and in preparation for the next IPCI, which will
take place 18-19 October 2004, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France,
the Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (IEPFPD)
conducted a questionnaire with the regional and global parliamentary groups
to determine what actions they have taken to promote the implementation of
the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA) and the Ottawa Commitment.
Below is a summary featuring the results of the questionnaire.
Since the inaugural IPCI in Ottawa, parliamentary groups have been working
effectively across the globe in order to make the Ottawa Commitment visible
not only to their peers and national legislators but also on the regional
and international stages.
The sections below illustrate key trends in activities already undertaken
by the regional and global parliamentary groups on the IPCI Steering Committee.
These findings, divided by global, regional and national-level activities,
serve as a useful basis from which to begin discussions on how to further
advance the Ottawa Commitment.
The following parliamentary networks responded to the questionnaire:
- The Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
-The Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians on Population
and Development (FAAPPD);
- The Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (IAPG);
- The Inter-European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development
(IEPFPD); and
- Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA).
Despite political changes and instability in some regions, the analysis presented
here demonstrates the significant impact that Ottawa has had on the parliamentary
community active in population and development around the world.
Generally speaking, all regions used the very visible tool of newsletter
articles to sensitize their constituencies to the outcomes of Ottawa.
Many of the groups saw the communications tools provided by UNFPA, such as
the IPCI poster, as very useful.
AFPPD representatives reported that they benefited from participating in
the IPCI almost immediately; particularly during the ICPD Implementation
Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, which was part of the United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's (UNESCAP) Population Conference.
AFPPD also covered the Ottawa Commitment extensively in several editions
of its newsletter.
FAAPPD organized two sub-regional workshops to sensitize parliamentarians
to the Ottawa Commitment, one for Central Africa countries (held 11-12 July
2003, in Yaoundé, Cameroon) and the other for countries in Southern
Africa (held 11-14 August 2003, in Lusaka, Zambia). English and Portuguese
versions of the IPCI poster were distributed in the Lusaka Workshop.
In the Americas, IAPG dedicated a special edition of its newsletter to IPCI
with a focus on Latin America. The newsletter and a specially designed
version of the Ottawa Commitment were widely disseminated in the IAPG region.
In Europe, IEPFPD made special mention of the IPCI in its annual report (which
featured a foreword by Thoraya Obaid), in its newsletters and on its web
site. European parliamentarians who had participated in Ottawa also
briefed relevant committees in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe.
At the national level, a number of parliamentary groups have been actively
raising the visibility of Ottawa. Parliamentarians agreed that UNFPA-produced
posters were very helpful in providing an identifiable and visible link to
the issues.
All regions have proactively approached national parliamentarians about the
IPCI through written communications (e-mails and briefings) and through face-to-face
contact. In particular, PGA Junior Professional Officers (JPOs), working
with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, the
Nigerian National Assembly and the National Assembly of Mali, have been actively
promoting the ICPD Programme of Action and the Ottawa Commitment. They
have organized a number of meetings for PGA members in Mali and Nigeria,
providing parliamentarians with information on the outcomes of the ICPD and
the IPCI. PGA has also initiated a targeted one-on-one dialogue with
key parliamentarians in a number of member countries.
Member groups of IEPFPD and FAAPPD presented the Ottawa Commitment to their
respective national parliaments, both in the main chambers and in committee
meetings.
All IPCI-participating parliamentary groups successfully integrated the Ottawa
Commitment into their work programmes for 2003.
At the invitation of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB),
AFPPD, IAPG and IEPFPD held a workshop on population and development at the
PNoWB Annual Meeting held in March 2003, in Athens, Greece. In the
workshop, parliamentarians from the three population groups addressed an
audience of new parliamentarians not yet active on population issues.
The speakers sensitized their new peers to the progress on population and
development issues and to the responsibilities of parliamentarians in these
matters, encouraging them to use the Ottawa Commitment as the basis for their
work.
FAAPPD organized two sub-regional training workshops on Adolescent Reproductive
Health Advocacy, Fund Raising and Resource Mobilization. One of the
objectives of the seminars, which together had attendees from 19 countries
in the Africa region, was to sensitize participants to the Ottawa Commitment.
In the Americas, IAPG organized a study tour to Colombia and Brazil in May
2003, expressly to demonstrate the concrete meaning of the Ottawa Commitment.
AFPPD has been actively cooperating with UNFPA country offices to stimulate
the creation of an enabling environment in the Asia region. Currently,
Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Indonesia and Vietnam have UNFPA country offices
funding their parliamentary programmes. Seven other countries also
have full time staff support for parliamentary programmes.
At the IEPFPD Third Council Meeting held in May 2003, in Lisbon, Portugal,
parliamentarians from other regions were given the opportunity to address
the gathered delegates, and all of them highlighted the IPCI. Moreover,
IEPFPD has decided to integrate the Ottawa Commitment into its work by creating
two working groups, one on creating an enabling environment and another on
resource mobilization. Two members of the IEPFPD Executive Committee
have been assigned as vice-presidents in charge of each issue.
In Asia, AFPPD is currently conducting a unique programme on "person-to-person
advocacy", in which each parliamentarian is individually met with to discuss
population and development-related programmes in four countries funded by
the Hewlett Foundation.
Given the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the ICPD and the goals set in
Ottawa, all IPCI-participating parliamentary groups have had very clear benchmarks
to follow.
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary in September 2003, a PGA-organized
parliamentary delegation from countries that have already made commitments
to increase spending on population and development activities visited the
U.S. In addition, another delegation of parliamentarians from developing
countries that depend heavily on U.S. foreign assistance met with legislators
from the U.S. House and Senate who represent a variety of views -- including
those who have either not yet made commitments or who seek programme reductions
-- and discussed the impact of foreign assistance and the ways of achieving
political action in parliament and within their constituencies.
FAAPPD initiated a letter-writing campaign asking the governments of all
member groups to increase budget allocation to national population and development
programs.
In Europe, parliamentarians have counteracted highly organized attempts by
opposition forces to halt funding for sexual and reproductive health and
rights and have also managed to see an increased funding commitment from
many governments. Notably, the European Parliament approved €73 million
($90.6 million) for four years funding to the ICPD. In Ireland, parliamentarians
worked to bring about a 38 per cent increase in national funding for reproductive
health. Active resource mobilization efforts are taking place in all
European donor countries where an IEPFPD member group exists.
In Asia, the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP), a member
of AFPPD, has continuously worked to either enhance or maintain Japan's contribution
to UNFPA. AFPPD affiliates in New Zealand and Australia have done the
same in their respective countries.
PGA members in various countries have been campaigning in their home parliaments
to increase aid to developing countries in order to meet the challenges set
out in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Ottawa Commitment,
especially the goals of eradicating poverty and hunger, improving reproductive
health efforts, combating HIV/AIDS and promoting gender equality.
Since Ottawa, there have been a number of pivotal policy developments across
the globe. Parliamentarians within the population and development community
have been gathering knowledge from concrete examples around them to share
experiences so that they can move the ICPD Programme of Action forward in
their respective countries. This has taken the form of seminars, workshops
and structured dialogues.
In Asia, AFPPD has worked closely with PNoWB and other parliamentary groups,
and has sent parliamentarians to international events and on study visits
to other continents.
PGA has organized a series of dialogues between Armenian and Azerbaijani
parliamentarians that focused on the environmental issues relating to their
countries' shared water sources. These meetings resulted in the creation
of a coordination council that oversees the work of parliamentarians from
both countries to clean the water sources. This council includes a
number of regional experts, a parliamentary facilitator, parliamentarians
and an international consultant.
In the Americas, IAPG has been working with UNFPA to help create a stronger
network of parliamentarians. The collaboration is intended to help
parliamentarians become more involved with population and development issues
in line with the Ottawa Commitment and the Cairo Programme of Action and
in order to counter the opposition.
FAAPPD, in collaboration with the Unites States Agency for International
Development (USAID), organized a sub-regional workshop in Conakry, Guinea,
for parliamentarians from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Senegal.
These countries have adopted policies on sexual and reproductive health and
rights, and the workshop was designed to help attendees move their countries
beyond that stage and towards the implementation of laws and policies.
In Europe, IEPFPD has ensured that its member groups in regional assemblies,
such as the Council of Europe, have been extensively briefed on population
and development policy issues. Parliamentarians from IEPFPD member
groups played a crucial role to ensure that the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe adopted a report on the Global Gag Rule, which endorses
the Ottawa Commitment. The chairs of the Finnish, Swedish and U.K.
groups were pivotal in this initiative.
IAPG has asked each of its board members to report on what their governments
have done to follow up on the Ottawa conference.
In national parliaments across Europe, parliamentarians have regularly tabled
questions on IPCI-related issues.
This newsletter is issued by the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) in its capacity as secretariat for the biannual International
Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme
of Action (the first conference was held in November 2002, in Ottawa, Canada).
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 Diego Hadis at hadis@unfpa.org. If you have any questions or
comments on the content of this newsletter, please contact Harumi Kodama
at kodama@unfpa.org or Richard Snyder at snyder@unfpa.org.
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