| ICPD: An Agenda
for Choices Today’s new generation of young people bears both
the burdens and the consequences of choice. They will decide how fast the world adds the
next billion and the billion after that, and whether world population doubles again. Their
decisions will influence whether the new billions will be born to lives of poverty and
deprivation; whether equality and equity will be established between women and men; and
what effect population growth will have on natural resources and the global environment.
These are personal decisions, but they will be influenced by the policy choices of nations
and the global community.
Despite demographic uncertainty, faltering development in many countries and the
decline in international resources for development, the climate for choice is better in
two crucial ways than it was when the world passed 5 billion:
Countries have reached a broad global consensus on population and development, and
agreed on an agenda for implementing it. The agenda is based on the understanding that
each sovereign country will implement the agenda according to its own priorities and
perceptions; that reaching slower and more-balanced population growth worldwide depends on
the free and informed choices of individual men and women; and that women and men must be
empowered to make those choices; There is growing practical evidence that this agenda
meets the needs of people and nations and that despite all obstacles, it is being put into
practice.
At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179
countries reached consensus on the relationship between population and development, and
set goals for 2015. A five-year review in 1999 has shown that the goals of ICPD remain not
only practical and realistic, but also necessary for individual advancement and balanced
development.
The ICPD recognized, and the review confirmed and strengthened, that countries are
adopting population and development policies based on quality of life, personal choice and
human rights. Policies are concerned with such issues as poverty, food security, resource
use and environmental impacts; data on population numbers, distribution and rates of
growth are used to promote broad development rather than narrow sectoral goals.
In this growing group of countries the success of reproductive health and related
services is measured by their ability to satisfy human needs and aspirations rather than
by their effect on fertility levels. Among the primary concerns are attention to ensuring
informed choice, access for poor and rural populations, and uniform high quality.
The Cairo conference also recognized that meeting reproductive health needs involves
providing a range of services, including family planning, and at the same time taking
action to guarantee rights, inform and empower women in all aspects of their lives, and
involve men as supportive partners. It is central to the ICPD consensus that fertility is
determined by the voluntary decisions of couples and individuals. There is a clear
understanding that smaller families and slower population growth overall will be the
result of policies enabling everyone, but especially women, to exercise choices in all
areas of their lives.
More and more countries are measuring the
success of
reproductive health services by their ability to satisfy people’s needs,
rather than by their effect on fertility levels.
Countries are changing the legal frame-work and implementing existing
legislation in pursuit of these goals. There is also an increasing emphasis on advocacy
and on partnerships between government and civil society to build support for the goals of
ICPD.
There is agreement on the resources needed, though countries and the international
community have not yet made good on the agreement.
Many countries have made considerable progress towards the goals agreed at the ICPD.
All countries have taken some steps and many would do more if the necessary resources were
available. At the same time there is pressure from many groups, especially those
representing women and young people, for faster and more focused action to make the
promise of ICPD a reality.
The "ICPD+5" year of 1999 was the occasion to review implementation of the
Programme of Action and consider action for the future. UNFPA, the United Nations
Population Division and various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) conducted surveys,
and UNFPA organized a series of expert meetings leading up to an international forum at
The Hague in February 1999. Finally, the United Nations General Assembly held a special
session on the ICPD from 30 June to 2 July 1999.
The Hague Forum and the General Assembly special session were occasions for
governments, parliamentarians, NGOs and private donors to share their experiences and
understandings. They assessed progress towards the goals of the Programme of Action,
considered emerging issues such as migration and ageing, defined new benchmarks to measure
implementation, and made recommendations to adapt activities to evolving circumstances.
Actions were agreed upon in several categories: population and development;
reproductive and sexual health; gender equality, equity and the empowerment of women;
partnerships and collaboration; and mobilization of resources.
BOX
3
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Goals of the ICPD — and New Benchmarks
The ICPD endorsed a set of interdependent population and development objectives,
including sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development, and gender
equity and equality. Countries were urged to include population factors in all development
strategies, and to act to eliminate gender-based violence and harmful traditional
practices including female genital mutilation. Quantitative goals were adopted in three
areas:
- Universal education — Elimination of the gender gap in primary and
secondary education by 2005, and complete access to primary school or the equivalent by
both girls and boys as quickly as possible and in any case before 2015;
- Mortality reduction — Reduction in infant and under-5 mortality
rates by at least one third, to no more than 50 and 70 per 1,000 live births,
respectively, by 2000, and to below 35 and 45, respectively, by 2015; reduction in
maternal mortality to half the 1990 levels by 2000 and by a further one half by 2015
(specifically, in countries with the highest levels of mortality, to below 60 per 100,000
live births);
- Reproductive health — Provision of universal access to a full
range of safe and reliable family-planning methods and to related reproductive and sexual
health services by 2015.
The five-year review in 1999 agreed on new benchmarks to measure implementation of ICPD
goals:
- The 1990 illiteracy rate for women and girls should be halved by 2005. By 2010 the net
primary school enrolment ratio for children of both sexes should be at least 90 per cent;
- By 2005, 60 per cent of primary health care and family planning facilities should offer
the widest achievable range of safe and effective family planning methods, essential
obstetric care, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections including STDs,
and barrier methods to prevent infection; 80 per cent of facilities should offer such
services by 2010, and all should do so by 2015;
- At least 40 per cent of all births should be assisted by skilled attendants where the
maternal mortality rate is very high, and 80 per cent globally, by 2005; these figures
should be 50 and 85 per cent, respectively, by 2010; and 60 and 90 per cent by 2015;
- Any gap between the proportion of individuals using contraceptives and the proportion
expressing a desire to space or limit their families should be reduced by half by 2005, 75
per cent by 2010, and 100 per cent by 2015. Recruitment targets or quotas should not be
used in attempting to reach this goal.
Recognizing that the HIV/AIDS situation is worse than anticipated by the ICPD, the
review agreed that to reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection, at least 90 per cent of
young men and women aged 15 to 24 should have access by 2005 to preventive methods —
such as female and male condoms, voluntary testing, counselling, and follow-up — and
at least 95 per cent by 2010. HIV infection rates in persons 15 to 24 years of age should
be reduced by 25 per cent in the most-affected countries by 2005, and by 25 per cent
globally by 2010.
Source: United Nations. 1999. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of
the Twenty-first Special Session of the General Assembly (A/S-21/5/Add.1). |
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