UNFPA Lauds Parliamentarians' Support for the ICPD PoA and the Millennium Development Goals

ISSUE 58 - 03 October 2005

Below is a letter from Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, to Members of Parliaments from around the world, expressing her appreciation for their support in promoting the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action and its links to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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Dear Hon. Members of Parliaments,

On behalf of UNFPA and on behalf of those we serve, I would like to extend to you our deepest appreciation for the achievements you have made to promote the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its links to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As parliamentarians, and as strong supporters of the ICPD agenda, you have focused tremendous energy in the past months in trying to shape the outcomes of the intergovernmental processes leading up to the 2005 World Summit and the outcome of the Summit itself.

As you know, the world leaders who gathered at the United Nations last week for the 2005 World Summit have committed themselves to "achieving universal access to reproductive health by 2015, as set out at the International Conference on Population and Development, integrating this goal in strategies to attain the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration, aimed at reducing maternal mortality, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS and eradicating poverty." (2005 World Summit Outcome paragraph 57 (g))

This is a major victory signifying the highest level of commitment to the Cairo goal on reproductive health. It is a major victory for you and the people you represent.

I am very pleased that the world leaders have recognized that access to reproductive health is essential to the achievement of the MDGs. Now we need to move forward to ensure that the commitment in the agreement is translated into solid plans, policies, laws, programmes and actions that benefit women, men and young people around the world.

As representatives of the people, you, the parliamentarians, hold enormous influence in the way national development policies are made, including the all-important issue of the allocation of resources. I hope you invest such capital in ensuring that reproductive health is reflected in national development strategies for implementing the MDGs. All developing nations agreed at the Summit to adopt such strategies by 2006.

I pledge to you that UNFPA will continue to pursue its mandate with the urgency that the task demands. We are fully committed to the achievement of the MDGs and the ICPD goals by 2015. UNFPA will continue to promote universal access to reproductive health and seek to decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe births and young people with HIV/AIDS and ensure that every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.

Once again, thank you very much for your support. We still have challenges ahead, but I know that our partnership will grow and flourish and that we will indeed succeed. I look forward to our continued collaboration.

Yours sincerely,

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid
Executive Director

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.

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