Panorama archive · HIV/AIDS
ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report
Originally published
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is the leading UN agency that caters to issues of women’s rights, sexual health and awareness. This year the agency celebrates 20 years since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD 1994) by launching the ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report review session. The report presented will “highlight the fact that development gains from the past 20 years cannot be sustained unless governments tackle the inequalities that hurt the poorest and most marginalized.” (www.unfpa.org)
Recently a meeting was held to discuss the ICPD review process in which the Executive Director of UNFPA, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, spoke about the importance of cross-regional work for better advocacy and productive outcome. Latin America and the Caribbean have shown significant improvement which shows that the goals of the ICPD are not blatantly imposed by the ‘North’. The Director also highlighted that in the next 20 years population growth will become a major issue and if not controlled, will lead to greater inequality. Hence he emphasised that it is vital to reach out to farther geographic locations that have so far been excluded.
Furthermore, the Director briefly addressed issues of gender inequality, especially the discrimination faced by women and the transgender community. Mr. Osotimehin stressed that strong advocacy needs to be developed around these gender issues in order to end intolerance. The UNFPA has in the past and will continue to work closely with the United Nations Human Rights Commission especially in the wake of the Nigerian tragedy - the abduction of more than 200 school girls by Boko Haram, to ensure effective strategies are put in place to cater to women rights in high risk areas.
The ICPD 2014 report is a major stepping stone towards highlighting what has been done and what is lacking to achieve greater gender equality and sexual health. Details and content of the report can be found on: http://icpdbeyond2014.org/about/view/29-global-review-report