from Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel@undp.org>
UN Expert Urges Donors to Make Good on Reproductive Health
Pledges
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New York, Aug 31 2004 7:00PM
Developing countries have made tremendous strides in improving
reproductive health and tackling women's rights issues, but rich
nations have only paid a little more than half of the US$ 6.1
billion they pledged for these goals a decade ago at a watershed
United Nations population conference, a senior United Nations
official said today.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the Executive Director of the UN Population
Fund (UNFPA), made her comments in an address to "Countdown
2015," a global round table discussion in London organized by
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to mark the 10th anniver-
sary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and De-
velopment (ICPD): http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=494
Countries incorporated the ICPD Programme of Action into their
national policies, and have reconfirmed their commitment to it
in regional meetings, but "they are hampered by inadequate sup-
port from rich nations," she said.
Ms. Obaid told a subsequent news conference that a recent UNFPA
survey http://www.unfpa.org/ answered by 169 governments showed
that most have taken steps since 1994 to empower women and ad-
dress key reproductive health concerns.
"But it also showed that much more needs to be done to improve
maternal health, slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and ensure adequate
supplies of essential contraceptive commodities," she said.
http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp
The donors' share of funding for contraceptive supplies, plus
condoms for the prevention of HIV/AIDS infection, has declined
by one-third since 1994, but the need for such commodities will
grow 40 per cent by 2015, she said. Meanwhile, UNFPA has col-
lected US$ 3.1 billion of the US$ 6.1 million pledged.
"In 2004, it is a crime that women still die because they are
having babies," Ms. Obaid added, referring to the persistence of
high maternal death rates in many developing countries, espe-
cially among poor and young women.