| Going Forward This
year’s State of World Population report reviews experience in the first four years of
implementation of the 20-year ICPD Programme of Action, including the major conclusions of
the international reviews undertaken in 1999: the Hague Forum and the special session of
the United Nations General Assembly.
The first conclusion is one of considerable growth in the efforts to implement the
Programme of Action. Despite severe resource constraints, the five-year review of
implementation experience has shown that an approach to development centred on individual
needs and aspirations can create integrated programmes for sexual and reproductive health,
advance the empowerment of women and mobilize new partnerships among governments and civil
society.
The technical meetings, round tables, regional conferences and intergovernmental
meetings of the past year, and dozens of other inquiries and studies undertaken by
governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations have amply
documented the range of progress. They have made recommendations concerning the key areas
for further progress in the next stages of implementation. Some actions have been easier
than others, and progress has been influenced by local and institutional contexts.
The five-year review of ICPD has clarified what is needed for further advance.
Developing countries need:
- Population and development policies which establish broad goals clearly linked with the
resources to achieve them;
- Institutional structures capable of adapting to changing policies;
- A commitment to gender equity and equality, greater participation of women in policy and
decision making roles, partnership with men and action to end gender-based violence;
- Rapid movement towards reproductive health service integration and better referral
systems;
- More-responsive services, better accountability to the people for whom the services are
designed, and intensified attention to staff training, retention and management;
- Determined action to halt the spread of AIDS;
- A commitment to provide quality reproductive health services and information to young
people including unmarried women;
- More effective decentralization;
- Improvements in the quality and use of data;
- Closer collaboration between government and civil society.
Above every other need, however is the need to make good the commitment to provide
resources. Without this, efforts in developing countries will be slowed, and in many
countries stalled completely. A heavy responsibility rests with the donor nations to fill
the gap between developing countries’ capabilities and their needs.
National programmes, projects and strategies are frequently experiencing difficulties
in coordinating newly developed structures and newly emerging functions. With further
progress these may prove to have been growing pains: the temporary side-effect of
increasing strength. Further development, however, will depend on political commitment and
financial resources, both national and international.
The ICPD+5 review marks the latest stage of a process started 30 years ago. During this
time population has moved from a minority concern of demographers and statisticians to a
global consensus embracing everyone involved with human development—from a matter
primarily of numbers and growth rates to including human rights in the area of
reproductive health and gender equity.
The right to choose the size and spacing of the family and to have the information and
the means to do so, first enunciated in 1968, is no longer exercised only by the
privileged few but by more than half of all couples throughout the world. Universal and
equal access by women and men to education and health care, including reproductive and
sexual health care, is an acknowledged goal of national and international development
policy, and is increasingly found in practice. Population policy based on human rights and
human needs has become a practical and necessary part of development strategy.
UNFPA has been a leading partner in calling attention to new concerns, building
consensus, and encouraging action at both national and international levels. The next
phase, mobilizing the will and the resources to meet the goals of the ICPD Programme of
Action, is the challenge of the next decade.
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For more information:
United Nations Population Fund
Information and External Relations Division
220 E. 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.
Tel. 212-297-5020; fax: 212-557-6416
E-mail: ryanw@unfpa.org. Web site: www.unfpa.org |
