ICPD30 Global Dialogue on Demographic Diversity and Sustainable Development Opening Ceremony

Your Excellency Sheikh Hasina, Honourable Prime Minister of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 
Your Excellency Dr. Hasan Mahmud, Foreign Minister of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,
Your Excellency Hosaka Yasushi, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Your Excellency Ambassador Petko Nedeltchev Draganov, Ambassador at Large of Bulgaria,
Excellencies, 
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished delegates, 
Dear policymakers, 
Dear young people,

Assalaam alaikum! I greet you in Peace – peace is the fervent wish of the women and girls that UNFPA serves in more than 130 countries around the world. 

Peace is the clarion call of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to heal the world in these turbulent times.

For UNFPA, it is an honor to facilitate this Global Dialogue on ICPD30 along with our outstanding host, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, and in partnership with the Governments of Japan and Bulgaria. 

We are most honoured by the presence of Her Excellency, the Honorable Prime Minister, a world leader who has prioritized issues vital to women and girls.

We are delighted to be joined by allies from around the world, who are playing a role in shaping our collective ICPD journey. I salute you and thank you for your leadership, and I congratulate us all on the successful conclusion of the 57th Session of the Commission on Population and Development last month. 

Depend upon one to count to two. Depend upon one to count to two.

As policymakers and demographers, as statisticians and academics, as leaders of civil society, you have acted to defend rights and choices for women and girls, and for all.

Data, statistics, monitoring, evaluation – it all counts. And especially now.

In a world grappling with conflicts, record humanitarian displacement, climate change, migration and rising intolerance, and a surge of misinformation and disinformation, it is evidence- and rights-based decisions that will shape the future of reproductive health and rights. 

I was there in Cairo in 1994 when the world came together at the International Conference on Population and Development, as countries enthusiastically embraced a revolutionary shift to put women and girls at the center of development.

I recall the powerful sense of purpose, with the legendary Dr. Nafis Sadik of UNFPA presiding and declaring: “Healthy families are created by choice, not by chance.”

Since then, gains in sexual and reproductive health and rights transformed the lives of millions upon millions of people worldwide:

• Between the years 2000 and 2020, maternal mortality – down by one third. Here in Bangladesh, it decreased by an even more impressive 38 percent.
• Since 1990, the number of women using modern contraception doubled globally. 
• Since 2000, births among adolescent girls 15 to 19 years old fell by a third; and 
• More and more countries enacted legislation to protect comprehensive reproductive rights, including measures to reduce unsafe abortion and to expand access to comprehensive sexuality education for young people.

It’s much safer to be a woman today, whether in Benin or Bangladesh; it’s easier to get an education, it’s safer to give birth, more possible for a girl to choose her life’s trajectory.

Yet we must admit that inequalities still reign: too many women and girls have been left out of that progress. Even with significant strides, too many major gaps remain. Therefore, to achieve demographic resilience and sustainable development, address those gaps – those obstacles to achieving three transformative zeros: zero unmet need for family planning, zero preventable maternal deaths and yes, zero gender-based violence – all based on data and a foundation of good evidence. 

So I warmly welcome you to this ICPD30 Global Dialogue on Demographic Diversity and Sustainable Development. Because population policy is based on data, yet it’s also about rights and choices. Who has them? And who doesn’t? 

The very intimate questions about whether, when and with whom to have children is in essence a personal decision that won’t easily be swayed by factors outside the family. 

Knowing that the reproductive years coincide with the years of productivity on the job, then women and couples will make decisions about fertility through the lens of what is good for life and career. How to nurture a new human being with the requisite support? How to juggle the timing of procreation as well as recreation?

In many places around the world, fertility trends are front page news – whether high-fertility or low fertility. Talk about trends in demography has reached a power moment.

Since the world topped 8 billion, we hear an ever-louder chorus of alarm about population trends. Headlines express fears of an apocalypse — impending doom — both about “overpopulation” and sometimes about “underpopulation”.

The pace and direction of demographic change has never been so diverse. Two-thirds of people now live in places with below replacement fertility. In contrast, some countries continue to experience vigorous population growth. 

When we fall prey to the cacophony of dire predictions, however contradictory they may be, there is serious risk that women’s reproductive rights will be undermined. And that’s already happening: calls for restrictive child policies, edicts to ban contraception in public hospitals. Women urged to step away from career aspirations and to bear children for motherhood and country. 

Such pro-natalist policy approaches that would dictate fertility have failed time and time again. Incentives for people to make babies just don’t work – what does work is upholding rights and choices. What always works? Ask women what they want.

Research shows how structural inequalities, like gender inequality at home and on the job, contribute to high levels of voluntary childlessness. Women are voting no because of that double burden and the lack of support. And there remain enormous gaps in the prevention and treatment of infertility, for couples desperately trying to make a family.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

Whenever we hear that people are hard to reach, I say that usually means that we haven’t tried hard enough. UNFPA’s 2024 State of World Population report demonstrates that when we don’t prioritize reaching people furthest behind, that undermines everyone’s progress.

Looking at the average disguises inequalities and the extreme disparities in access, and in outcomes for people pushed to the margins, living on the fringes of society. In order to safeguard the health, the wellbeing, and the rights of all people, we must illuminate the shadows where the most vulnerable dwell.

And how do we do that? You know the answer more than most. Across all 6 regions where we work, UNFPA advises Governments in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia – we advise targeted inventions for those left behind. 

We collect more and better data, disaggregated by age, by location, by disability, by ethnicity, and so much more, to better understand who is being left behind and how to reach them faster.

Take Brazil, for example, the country with the largest diaspora of people of African descent. For the first time, their census counted members of the historically neglected quilombo communities. With this data, government can devise evidence-based policies to meet the needs and uphold the rights of people of African descent.

Technology also holds promise to reveal inequalities by digitally mapping vulnerable populations. Let us all try harder to reach that last mile.

UNFPA supports population census and the use of such data to ensure that everyone is counted, because everyone counts. With the power of technological advances, governments now have new potential to prepare for their likely demographic futures, including through needed policy changes.

Let me tell you that there are proven strategies that we can deploy right now to leverage demographic diversity as a catalyst for individuals and communities and countries to make progress and to thrive.

Therefore, depend upon one to count to two.

First, use demographic data to respond to the specific needs of vulnerable populations. Data equals power. Disaggregated data analysis equals more power. Commit to disaggregating data. If you have to, climb up the hillside, jump on the boat, put on your backpack and get on horseback to reach anyone who otherwise would be invisible. Interpret their language. Let no barrier stop us from seeking truth through data.

From Sofia in Bulgaria in 2021 to our next discussion about demographic resilience in Lisbon, Portugal later this year, UNFPA will stand with you — statisticians and demographers, government officials and parliamentarians, young evaluators, women and girls and everyone — to assure the visibility of people currently left behind.

Next, let us address the factors that affect pregnancy and childbearing decisions. Given that nearly half the world’s pregnancies are unintended, it is imperative to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, to contraception and to comprehensive sexuality education. 

Also take steps to make childcare affordable. Respect women’s fertility decisions and their right to say yes or no, without coercion.

Third, invest in young people – that’s always a winning proposition. Prepare them to fulfill their potential. That’s also part of their preparation for healthy longevity. 

Those are two sides of the same coin. Youth are now 1.8 billion strong, almost a quarter of humanity and it is young people who will power productive economies, address the climate crisis throughout their lives, and harness the benefits (or the downsides) of the tech revolution. Young people believe in fairness, in social justice, in reproductive justice. And this is good news for a world in search of solutions. 

At the first ICPD30 Global Youth Dialogue in Benin earlier this year, young people called for stronger comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services; they called for educational systems that provide equal opportunities for all; and they asked for meaningful representation in global affairs.

Simultaneously, this young world is getting older. Let’s not be surprised by that. Let’s plan for that, by investing in people’s health throughout the life course. 

And finally, I ask you to use your position to be counted among those who stand up for the reproductive rights and aspirations of all people. And why the controversy?

Walk the talk on human diversity in an inclusive way, without discrimination, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, geographic location. As a facts-based community, it is you and it is me who will defend people against fake facts, fake news, misinformation and disinformation. That is part of demographic resilience, too. 

So, I leave you with the everlasting wisdom of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore: 

Reach high, for stars lie hidden within you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal.

The river of time will inevitably keep flowing. So let us not fight the current – instead let us ready ourselves with the conveyances we will need to safely navigate to the other side of the riverbank.

Overarching demographic trends – population growth in some places, population ageing in others, migration shifts, climate displacements – these are unlikely to abate.

So indeed, let us heed the ICPD Programme of Action’s call to focus on people, not just numbers. 

We magnify our efforts when we work together.

The march continues – for progress, for reproductive health and rights, for sustainable development and for peace and happiness. Reach high for the stars! 

The goal of prosperity for all will follow when we finally fulfill the promise of Cairo to uplift women and girls and young people everywhere and uphold the inherent dignity and human rights of everyone – in all our beautiful diversities.

Thank you.