Nearly 700 leaders, activists and parliamentarians from 109 countries gathered in London from 31 August to 2 September for the Countdown 2015 Global Roundtable, marking the 10th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
Organized by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in cooperation with Population Action International and Family Care International, the high-profile three-day meeting assessed the progress and mapped the future for the key goals of the ICPD.
At the closure of the meeting, the participants, among whom many of the world’s leading experts and advocates in the fields of reproductive health and reproductive rights, issued a final declaration and an Action Agenda, recommending new approaches to achieve the ICPD Programme of Action by its 2015 deadline, including efforts to “challenge those who distort religious teachings”.
“We believe that the Cairo Programme of Action permanently altered the framework for discussion and action on sexual and reproductive health and rights. We affirm the right to health, and that sexual and reproductive rights are human rights – universal, interdependent and indivisible. We believe that these rights must be at the centre of sexual and reproductive health plans, programmes and interventions”, the Declaration reads.
Providing highlights and recommendations in 10 areas the Agenda for Action warns that “we risk falling further behind if we do not effectively link our goals to the broader development agenda”. “Donor countries must be pushed to reach and/or maintain annual contributions to international family planning of 0.7 per cent of national income”, the Roundtable recommended as regards resources, while in order to improve maternal health, it was stressed that “empowerment of women, families and communities can improve mothers’ access to care”.
In his closing statement, Steven W. Sinding, Director-General of IPPF, summed up the four critical points agreed upon at the meeting. First, he said, “it is essential that we unite the sexual and reproductive health movement with the movement fighting HIV/AIDS”.
Second, he stressed the consensus reached by participants on the fact that time had come “to reinforce a global movement to ensure that every woman in every country has access to safe abortion services when she needs them”.
Third, elaborating on the centrality of the ICPD to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said “the MDGs are dead letters unless we achieve the goals of Cairo…. The ICPD is the only yeast that can make the MDG bread rise”.
Concluding on the central role that young people still ought to play, “with half the world’s population under the age of 25, young people must lead the way in changing the world they will soon own. They are our hope for the future, and our generation must pass the torch”, he said.
For more information, visit www.countdown2015.org
(News based on EngenderHealth News Release, September 2004.)