UNFPA, Ads Urge Countries to Honor Family Planning Funding Commitments

Monterrey, Mexico, March 20 – At this week’s International Conference on Financing for Development, the United Nations Population Fund’s Executive Director Thoraya Obaid and Phyllis Cuttino of the Better World Campaign called on donor nations to honor the funding commitments made at a 1994 global population conference.

In a major speech and press conference, UNFPA’s Obaid outlined the agreements reached at the historic 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). “At the ICPD in Cairo, 179 governments agreed that they should advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, eliminate violence against women and girls, and ensure women’s ability to control their own fertility,” Obaid said.

“The Cairo conference determined that $17 billion would be needed by 2000, $18.5 billion by 2005 and $20.5 billion by 2010 to address underdevelopment. It was agreed that developing countries would pledge two-thirds of the estimated need, and donor countries, mostly industrialized nations, would be responsible for the remaining one-third,” Cuttino said.

But the UNFPA Executive Director made clear that follow-up is crucial. “Agreement – the will to do something -- isn’t everything, as we have learned. It must be matched by commitments. Less than half the agreed total has been made available by the wealthiest nations,” she said. “It is a tribute to the governments and the people of the developing countries that they have done so much with so little. Now it is time for industrial countries to act on their commitments and raise development assistance in line with the Cairo agreement,” Obaid said.

Ms. Cuttino announced that the Better World Campaign was undertaking an advertising campaign to focus attention on the work of UNFPA to empower, educate, and engage women, and to encourage donor nations to mobilize new and additional resources to fulfill the ICPD commitments. “What is most alarming is the fact that the most recent official figures demonstrate that developing nations have contributed $8.6 billion toward the funding goals, in other words they are ¾ of the way to meeting their commitment; the industrialized nations, such as those targeted by our advertising campaign, have not lived up to their promise. They have only contributed about $2.2 billion, which puts them approximately at a 40% level of what they promised,” Cuttino said.

“Industrialized countries must not again agree to goals that won’t be met. The world’s leading industrialized nations must recognize that one of the most important links in their plans to replace poverty with progress are women,” Cuttino said.

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