UNITED NATIONS POPULATION INFORMATION NETWORK (POPIN) UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)

African Countries Renew Commitment

African Countries Renew Commitment

Delegates from nearly 50 African countries met in Dakar from 7-12 December 

1992 to formulate a common African position for the International Conference 

on Population and Development, 1994. The Conference, which was organized by 

the Economic Commission for Africa, the Organization of African Unity and 

UNFPA, in collaboration with the African Development Bank and the Union for 

African Population Studies included a four day meeting of experts followed 

by a two-day ministerial meeting.



Addressing the opening session of the ministerial segment, ICPD 

Secretary-General. Dr. Nafis Sadik said that a radical re-examination of the 

role of women in the development process was needed. Women, she said, would 

have to be brought into the mainstream of development if national population 

policies were to succeed.



The Dakar/Ngor Declaration on Population, Family and Sustainable Development 

calls for a reduction in the region's population growth rate from 3 per cent 

to 2.5 per cent by the year 2000, and a doubling of the contraceptive 

prevalence rate from 10 to 20 per cent during the same period. The 

Declaration also sets goals for raising life expectancy from 51 years to 55 

years, reducing infant mortality to less than 50 per 1,000 live births, 

lowering childhood mortality to 70 per 1,000 and reducing maternal mortality 

by 50 per cent. The Declaration calls for quality family planning services 

and studies in order to reduce unsafe abortions, estimated to cause up to 50 

per cent of the region's maternal mortality.



The Declaration calls upon Governments to adopt national policies to improve 

the role, status and participation of women, and to take the necessary steps 

to eliminate discrimination against women, as well as certain traditional 

and cultural practices which inhibit their advancement.



Copies of the Report of the Conference and the Dakar/Ngor Declaration may be 

obtained from the ICPD Secretariat and the Population Division of the 

Economic Commission for Africa, P.O. Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.