Donor Countries Should Keep Promises and Create World Free From Fear, Free From Want, Says UNFPA's Thoraya Obaid

UNITED NATIONS, New York—Donor countries should honour their commitment to fund population and reproductive health programmes in order to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has said today. She was speaking at the opening of the Commission on Population and Development.

“Governments in all regions…have acknowledged that the issues of population and reproductive health are central to the Millennium Declaration, and to the creation of a world where people live free from fear and free from want, in dignity and in peace,” said Ms. Obaid. “There is widespread agreement that the Cairo agenda makes a significant contribution to the reduction of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”

While funding for population and reproductive health was on the rise, Ms. Obaid recommended more urgent action to provide resources necessary to expand access to sexual and reproductive health, including family planning, and to close funding gaps for supplies and logistics.

These steps have been described by the 250 development experts of the Millennium Project as Quick Wins to bring vital gains to millions of people and set countries on the path to the MDGs. Ensuring access to reproductive health, including voluntary family planning, the experts said, are essential to reducing poverty, tackling child and maternal mortality, and combating HIV/AIDS.

Over the next decade, the cost of providing quality contraceptive commodities is projected to rise to $1.8 billion, up from from $810 million in 2000. It has been calculated that each $1 million of commodities could prevent one of the following: 800 maternal deaths or as many as 360,000 unwanted pregnancies. For more than 30 million women each year, pregnancy and childbirth mean unnecessary suffering, ill-health or death, according to a report of the Secretary-General.

Ms. Obaid urged governments to incorporate universal access to reproductive health as an integral part of their responses to HIV/AIDS.

“This relatively inexpensive, high-impact Quick Win holds the potential to generate major gains and save millions of lives,” said Ms Obaid. “Guaranteeing access to family planning alone could reduce maternal mortality by 25 per cent and child mortality by up to 20 per cent. Ensuring skilled attendance at birth could reduce maternal deaths by 74 per cent. And Thailand and Uganda can testify that, in addition to abstinence and faithfulness, a 3-cent condom is a powerful tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”

The Executive Director asked nations to support the Millennium Project’s recommendation that universal access to reproductive heath by 2015 should be added as a target to the Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health.

“This year, we have an obligation to lay the groundwork for bolder action to bring about far-reaching change,” said Ms. Obaid. “Yes, we must be bold. Yes, we must achieve results. And yes, we must have as our guiding light the needs and hopes of all people.”

* * *

UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of population assistance. Making motherhood safer for all women is at the heart of the Fund’s mandate.

Contact Information:

Abubakar Dungus
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5031
Email: dungus@unfpa.org

Omar Gharzeddine
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5028
Email: gharzeddine@unfpa.org