Africa's Countries Reaffirm World Population Consensus

Inaction Could Cost More than 10 Million Lives by 2015, Kofi Annan Warns

DAKAR – All African countries today reaffirmed their strong commitment to the Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, stressing that the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved unless the Cairo Programme is fully implemented.

Apart from being important ends in themselves, gender equality and the empowerment of women were “key to breaking the cycle of poverty and improving the quality of life of the people of the continent”, the countries emphasized.

The nations of Africa expressed their view on the Cairo consensus when their ministers for population and development adopted a declaration and a report from a preceding meeting of more than 400 experts from all parts of the continent. The ministers in the development realm included those for finance, economic affairs, national planning, social development, employment, youth and health. They described the two documents as Africa’s own blueprints for carrying out the Cairo consensus and the 1992 Dakar-Ngor Declaration on Population, Family and Sustainable Development (DND).

Today’s ministerial meeting was organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to review the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action. It was supported by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

According to today’s declaration, the countries of Africa decided to intensify and “exert maximum efforts” to build on the progress achieved in the last 10 years through the Cairo and Dakar-Ngor programmes and to implement proposals in the report from the expert meeting. More efforts will focus on poverty eradication, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal death and the empowerment of women.

“The price of inaction – roughly 2.5 million maternal deaths, 7.5 million child deaths and 49 million maternal injuries in the next 10 years – is too high to contemplate,” warned United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a message that called for vigorous implementation of the practical blueprints. “People are looking to you to act with greater urgency to ensure that such scenarios do not come to pass.” The message was delivered by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah.

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, urged governments to provide adequate and gender-sensitive allocations for population and reproductive health. She also urged open discussions on HIV/AIDS and called for stronger institutions to effectively implement reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and gender policies.

“As long as girls are being married off at young ages and cannot refuse, we must continue to work for human rights for all,” said Ms. Obaid. “As long as women suffer from the condition of fistula, are inherited without their consent, we must continue to work for human rights for all.

When women have equal opportunity and equality before the law, the benefits go to everyone. Families, societies and nations are better off.”

African countries had made some progress in population and reproductive health since Cairo, said Lalla Ben Barka, ECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary, speaking for the Executive Secretary Kingsley Amoako.

“In spite of the successes, many challenges remain,” continued Ms. Ben Barka. “African countries will not meet the goals unless concrete actions are taken to resolve the critical development problems faced, such as high maternal morbidity and mortality, unmet needs for adolescent sexual and reproductive health, the spread of HIV/AIDS, unfavourable attitudes and practices working against the elimination of discrimination and inequalities against women in some countries.”

Opening the meeting, the Prime Minister of Senegal, Maky Sall, said that Africa still had the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The reduction of those rates would require the integration of reproductive health into primary health care.

In their declaration and blueprint, the African countries decided to redouble their efforts to promote and strengthen universal access to quality and comprehensive reproductive health information and services, including reproductive health commodity security.

On HIV/AIDS, African countries decided to increase efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, within the context of sexual and reproductive health. They would also support families and orphans affected by HIV/AIDS and guarantee the access of young and adult men and women to information, education and services required to prevent HIV infection.

As for maternal mortality, which claims more than 240,000 lives each year in Africa, the nations would redouble efforts to reduce it through basic services and comprehensive reproductive health care.

The countries of Africa then called for intensified mobilization and allocation of national resources as well for increased international financial support to speed-up the implementation of the Cairo consensus and other internationally agreed development goals.

Finally, they urged, “all countries, including development partners, to increase resources to UNFPA with a view to enhancing its ability to provide increased support to efforts to implement the commitments made in Dakar and Cairo, recognizing the vital role played by the United Nations Population Fund, in supporting the implementation of the DND, and the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.”

This Dakar meeting is part of regional events marking the 10th anniversary of the Cairo Conference. Similar gatherings have already been held in Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Americas.

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UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of population assistance. Since it became operational in 1969, it has provided help to developing countries, at their request, to meet reproductive health needs and support development efforts.

Contact Information:

Abubakar Dungus
Email: dungus@unfpa.org