Parliamentarians reaffirm "indispensable role" of ICPD in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Ms. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid during the opening ceremony.

On 21-22 November, over 300 participants, including parliamentarians and ministers from 103 countries, met in Bangkok for the Third International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) Programme of Action.

Other participants included representatives from non-governmental organizations, UNFPA, national, regional and global parliamentary groups on population and development as well as experts and government officials.

During the two-day meeting, the lawmakers pledged to step up efforts to ensure that everyone has access to family planning, services for safe pregnancy and childbirth, and the means to prevent sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.
At the closure, the parliamentarians and ministers unanimously adopted the Bangkok Statement of Commitment, which reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to and support for the Programme of Action of the ICPD” (Cairo, 1994) and its “indispensable role” in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
“Commitments secured at the highest level meetings of world leaders, including the 2005 World Summit, in support of universal access to reproductive health and its critical linkage to the international development agenda, still remain to be translated into legislation, national policies and programmes, supported by the requisite funding”, the Statement reads.

The ambitious document sounds the alarm over funding, underscoring that funding for the treatment of AIDS had grown exponentially, “while funds for its prevention” remained “scarce”. “Funding for family planning, the first line of defense against maternal mortality, has dropped from 55 per cent of total population funding in 1995 to 9 per cent today. And funds for reproductive health commodities remain in short supply”, notes the Statement.

“As a result, statistics on maternal mortality and morbidity remain virtually unchanged in some regions of the world”.
Participants pledged, among others, to “attain at least 10 per cent of national development budgets and development assistance budgets for population and reproductive health programmes including HIV and AIDS prevention and especially, family planning and reproductive health commodities” and to mobilize Governments to “support the adoption of indicators by Member States of the United Nations to monitor the target of universal access to reproductive health by 2015 and to use those indicators as soon as they are adopted”.

The participants also reviewed the results of a Global Survey - conducted by UNFPA and four regional parliamentary groups on population and development - on progress made by parliamentarians in implementing the ICPD since Cairo. They agreed on future strategies for national and regional action to realize its goals. The Survey found that many countries had adopted policies and laws on gender equality, reproductive rights and gender-based violence, although it showed that enacting HIV/AIDS-related legislation and ensuring funding for reproductive health continued to be challenges.

The Conference was organized by the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) and UNFPA, with the involvement of African, Arab, inter-European and inter-American regional parliamentary groups and Parliamentarians for Global Action. ESCAP and the Thai National Assembly were the local co-hosts.

(Sources: UNFPA press releases)