UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA)
|
| UN Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, with support from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |
|
DISPATCHES -- NEWS FROM UNFPA, THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND
NUMBER 2, OCTOBER 1995
DISPATCHES is a monthly bulletin dedicated to the activities of the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It is published in English,
French, and Spanish by the Information and External Relations
Division and is available free of charge from UNFPA offices
worldwide.
The designations employed and presentation of material in
DISPATCHES do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on
the part of UNFPA concerning the legal status or authority of any
country, territory, city, or area or the determination of its
frontiers or boundaries. Views expressed are the authors' and
sources' own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy
of the Fund. All material is checked for accuracy as received from
source; all enquiries should be addressed to the source/further
information address provided at the end of each item. Material may
be freely reproduced; credit and copies of reproduced material
would be appreciated.
We invite colleagues from UNFPA and cooperating organizations to
submit articles about UNFPA-assisted programmes and projects,
accounts of lessons learned from past and ongoing work, and
anecdotes from their country or area of work. These should be sent
to:
DISPATCHES, c/o IERD, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, 23rd floor, New
York, NY 10017, USA. Telephone: (212) 297-5022. Fax: (212)
557-6416. Internet: <aslam@unfpa.org>, <o'haire@unfpa.org>,
<travers@unfpa.org>.
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In this issue:
Training doctors in Mongolia
Parliamentarians' declaration
Adolescent health study group
Uganda's PEARL
1996 poster contest
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Beijing: Seeking rights, condemning coercion
Beijing - "The road to empowerment starts with the road to health,"
UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik told last month's Fourth World
Conference on Women. "So our task is threefold. Firstly, to ensure
that women have the information and services they need to bear and
bring up their children in health and in safety. Secondly, to offer
them support for choices other than reproduction. And finally to
ensure, whatever their choices are, that the first priority goes to
their interests as women, not as mothers or wives, or units of
production or units of reproduction, but as individuals with rights
and responsibilities of their own."
Speaking at a panel discussion on women and health security,
Dr. Sadik added: "If culture and tradition are invoked to hold back
change, and we hear this all the time, then culture and tradition
must give way."
Conference Secretary-General Gertrude Mongella underscored Dr.
Sadik's comments. "If we implement what we agreed on in Cairo, the
lives of women would change dramatically," Mongella said. "What we
are here to do is to recognize that the advancement of women is a
struggle. You must be prepared to face some elements that want to
maintain the status quo. We must be prepared for backward-looking
and conservative elements. We must keep governments accountable."
Addressing the Conference plenary, Dr. Sadik said: "Respect for
women and support for their advancement must be expressed in real
terms, and the first mark of respect for women is support for their
reproductive rights. Our generation has the power to make the right
a reality."
As DISPATCHES went to print, the Conference had adopted a
platform for action endorsing that position, although questions
remained over specific commitments and resources.
Dr. Sadik also was among speakers who condemned coercion in
family planning programmes. "Any form of coercion is completely
unacceptable, on practical as well as ethical grounds," she said.
"Coercion is a violation of human rights. Although it is every
country's sovereign right to determine its own policy, that right
does not extend to coercive practices."
- Source: Information & External Relations Division.
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AIDS: Joint programme takes shape
Geneva - UNFPA is among six cosponsors of UNAIDS, the Joint United
Nations Programme on AIDS, a new venture expected to be fully
operational by January 1996.
The Programme's roles will include advocating effective,
ethical, and adequately-funded responses to AIDS; fostering a
socio-economic and legal environment that is conducive to
prevention and care and supportive of people affected by HIV/AIDS;
serving as the primary source of policy and technical guidance; and
coordinating the strengths of the six co-sponsors.
The other five co-sponsors are UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, WHO, and
the World Bank. UNAIDS is headed by Peter Piot, a physician with a
Ph.D. in microbiology and former associate director of WHO's Global
Programme on AIDS.
-Source: UNAIDS Update. Further information from: Monika Gehner,
Public Information Officer, UNAIDS, WHO, 20 avenue Appia, CH-1211
Geneva 27, Switzerland. Fax: (41-22) 791-4880.
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ICPD Follow-up: Reaching out to teens
New York - WHO and UNICEF have joined UNFPA in a bid to voice the
urgency of accelerating adolescent health programmes and to spell
out ways of doing so.
The WHO/UNFPA/UNICEF Study Group on Adolescent Health and
Development Programming is to meet before year's end to:
> establish a new, realistic vision of the importance,
situation, and needs of adolescents;
> devise a strategic programming framework to meet those needs;
> outline evidence on the effectiveness of key programme
activities;
> take stock of country-level experience and show that
programming for adolescent health can be applied on a wider scale;
> highlight the essential factors and strategies to establish,
implement, and sustain adolescent health programmes, including
resource mobilization; and
> recommend action to accelerate and strengthen existing
programmes, including global support for country-level activities.
The initiative is a response to growing awareness of the need
to promote adolescent health, including sexual and reproductive
health. This awareness, generated in large part by youth NGOs
themselves, was brought into focus and given impetus by the ICPD
Programme of Action, which seeks, among other things, to
substantially reduce adolescent pregnancies.
-Source/further information from: James Chui, Education,
Communication & Youth Branch, Technical & Evaluation Division,
UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212)
297-4915.
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Uganda: A PEARL for adolescents
Kampala - Community and youth groups have joined forces with the
government to create PEARL, the Programme for Enhancing Adolescent
Reproductive Life in Uganda. PEARL is an indigenous effort to
create an environment conducive to adolescent health and
development and to provide young people with reproductive health
counselling and services that are appropriate to their culture and
circumstances.
PEARL was born of local concern for adolescents' welfare.
School drop-out rates are high, as is the prevalence of teen
pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including
HIV/AIDS. An estimated 30 per cent of children of primary-school
age are not enrolled and only 43 per cent of those enrolled go on
to secondary school. Studies suggest that, at any given moment, 11
per cent of girls aged 15-24 are pregnant. In 1987, people aged
14-24 accounted for 46 per cent of all cases of HIV infection.
Girls aged 15-21 are thought to be four times more likely to be
infected with HIV than boys in the same age group.
Similar concerns lay behind the ICPD Programme of Action's
recognition that the reproductive health needs of adolescents as a
group have been largely ignored by existing reproductive health
services. The Programme of Action recommended that information and
services be made available to young people to protect them from
unwanted pregnancies, STDs, and HIV/AIDS.
UNFPA's involvement in PEARL began with facilitating two
national workshops which helped to document the problems faced by
young Ugandans, identify gaps in existing programmes, and propose
strategies to address youth concerns, particularly in reproductive
health. The workshops brought together participants from the
government, NGOs, youth service organizations, community groups,
and the donor community.
Given PEARL's diverse and indigenous origins, its success will
depend largely on the establishment of a feasible institutional
framework and an effective mechanism for coordination. There is no
lack of energy to drive the programme, however, as young people
themselves and local community leaders will play a lead role in
implementing it.
-Source/further information from: Francois Farah, UNFPA Country
Director, 15B Clement Hill Road, P.O. Box 7184, Kampala, Uganda.
Fax: (041) 236-645.
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Panama: A treasure for schools
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA - UNFPA has joined the Ministry of Education
and the national newspaper [La Prensa] in publishing a four-page
monthly newspaper for the country's schoolchildren. [La Prensa en
las Escuelas] ("The newspaper in the schools") uses riddles,
puzzles, and cartoons to engage its young readers.
UNFPA has joined the initiative, helping to produce [Un Tesoro
Para Ti] ("A Treasure for You"), a page dedicated to population and
development issues. A complement to Project PAN/93/P01, Population
Education, it sets out to inform and empower readers. A recent
issue explored peer pressure and decision-making. Readers were
presented with a list of situations that could undermine their
self-esteem and asked to match these to a corresponding list of
"positive responses."
- Source: Pablo-Jose Mandeville, UNFPA Programme Officer. Further
information from: UNFPA, Apartado 6314, Panama 5, Panama. Fax:
(507) 27-5478.
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Parliamentarians: Renewed vows
Tokyo - Parliamentarians from 57 countries last month affirmed
their "belief that equitable and universal access to education and
reproductive health and rights, including sexual health and rights,
are a prerequisite for improving the living conditions of all
individuals, including adolescents, and for empowering women and
promoting their advancement."
Participants at the UNFPA-supported International Meeting of
Parliamentarians on Gender, Population, and Development called on
"parliamentarians everywhere" to, among other things:
> urge their governments to keep promises made at ICPD and other
conferences;
> appeal to governments that have not done so to sign the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, have their parliaments ratify it, and monitor its
implementation;
> urge donors to fulfil the agreed-upon target of 0.7 per cent
of their GNP for overall official development assistance and
earmark half the sum for women, gender, and population programmes;
and
> urge "interested developed and developing country partners" to
allocate 20 per cent of official development assistance and 20 per
cent of the national budget to basic social programmes, "especially
by reducing military expenditures."
The legislators themselves promised "to translate into
political action the recommendations set forth in this Declaration
and ensure that the achievements of the ICPD are affirmed" at the
Beijing conference and in their national legislatures.
-Source: Tokyo Declaration. Further information from: Executive
Board, UN Liaison, & External Relations Branch, Information &
External Relations Division, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York,
NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212) 557-6416.
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ECO: First forum held
Tehran - Regional cooperation in development programming among the
member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) has
entered a new phase with completion of ECO's First Conference on
Women's Status and Health.
The conference, held in the Iranian capital in August, was
sponsored by ECO, Iran's Ministry of Health, and UNFPA. It was the
first such joint effort since ECO and UNFPA last October signed a
Memorandum of Understanding committing them to "promote research,
analysis, and policy development in areas of mutual interest such
as population and development, women's empowerment, reproductive
health including family planning, income and employment, education,
urbanization, and migration."
ECO's members are: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and
Uzbekistan.
The conference brought together senior health officials from
ECO's member countries and set the scene for future collaboration.
After the conference, President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani voiced
Iran's readiness to share experience with its neighbours and to set
up a regional health training institution in collaboration with
UNFPA, according to the newspaper [Iran News].
"I think many of the Central Asian Republics are definitely
quite willing to learn from the Iranian experience," UNFPA
Executive Director Nafis Sadik was quoted as saying in an interview
with the Iranian newspaper [Kayhan International]. "Since they are
just embarking on their own family planning programmes, this is a
good opportunity to show them what they can do."
Dr. Sadik acknowledged Iran's achievements in bringing health
care to more than 80 per cent of the population; nearly doubling
women's literacy and increasing their access to education;
increasing contraceptive prevalence; and decreasing infant
mortality after the Islamic Revolution. She called for increased
emphasis, in all countries, on women's representation in political
institutions and legislative processes.
In Iran, "women's participation in health and medical care has
grown conspicuous after the victory of the Islamic Revolution,"
Minister of Health Alireza Marandi was quoted by [Iran News] as
telling the conference. "Thirty per cent of medical assistants in
all medical fields and 30 per cent of the scientific faculty
members of universities" are women.
Dr. Marandi said this sort of women's advancement and
participation helped the country to slow the annual population
growth rate from 3.2 per cent in 1989 to 1.75 per cent this year.
-Source/further information from: Shu Yu Xu, UNFPA Country
Director, Ghaem Magham Farahani No. 185, P.O. Box 15875-4557,
Tehran, Iran. Fax: 504-8864.
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Mongolia: Doctors' training course
Ulaanbaatar - One hundred non-specialist physicians from places
where maternal mortality rates have been persistently high have
completed a one-month course in perinatal care.
The course, organized under a Ministry of Health-UNFPA
project, was designed to reduce maternal and perinatal illness and
death by improving non-specialists' knowledge and practical skills,
putting trainees through 30 hours of theory classes and 108 hours
of practical training in obstetrics and gynaecology and 20 hours of
theory and 42 hours of practice in perinatology.
The original idea for the training course belongs to outgoing
UNFPA MCH/FP Resident Advisor Zahidul Huque, who last year traveled
to the Gobi desert region to speak with doctors about their
concerns.
The performance of the trained physicians will be monitored,
their impact on maternal and child health gauged, and the findings
applied in organizing future training courses.
-Source: Safe Motherhood Newsletter, published by the Ministry of
Health in collaboration with UNFPA. Further information from: Safe
Motherhood Newsletter, Ministry of Health, Room No. 202, 4 Karl
Marx Street, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; or UNFPA, P.O. Box 49/207,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
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Poster Contest: 1996 theme set
New York - "Where We Live Now" is to be the theme of next year's
UNFPA international poster contest, the fifth such competition held
to promote awareness of population and development issues.
The theme was chosen to coincide with the Second United
Nations Conference on Human Settlements -- Habitat II, scheduled
for June 1996 in Istanbul -- at which the winners will be
announced. To qualify for the international contest, designers must
first enter a national contest organized by the local UNFPA office
and win first, second, or third prize in their age group. The
contest is open to people aged 6 years or older and features five
age groups. A brochure describing the rules, procedures, and
rewards of the competition is to be distributed to UNFPA country
offices later this month.
-Further information from: UNFPA Country Offices or Information &
External Relations Division, UNFPA, 220 East 42nd Street, New York,
NY 10017, USA. Fax: (212) 557-6416.
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