Global Conference Demands Action on Cairo Commitments

NGO Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Development Held in Berlin This Week

CONTACTS

Catherina Hinz, Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), +49 511 943 7320 Jennifer Woodside, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), +49 511 943 7320 Kathy Bonk, CCMC, +1 202 326 8700

RESOURCES

Berlin Call to Action Official Web site of the Berlin Global NGO Forum The Lancet: "Sex, rights, and politics—from Cairo to Berlin" Fact Sheets: Overview The Cairo Consensus Chronology ABC of MDGs Glossary Economic Growth & Sustainable Development Education: Key to Success Family in the 21st Century Gender Equality, Equity & Empowerment of Women Investing in Health, Rights, & the Future Prevention First: HIV/AIDS Resources and Supplies Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights The Population Connection: Other Emerging Issues Young People

BERLIN, September 4, 2009 – More than 400 delegates, representing 131 countries, gathered here this week for the Global Partners in Action: a Non-Governmental Organization Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Development. On the final day they demanded “concrete, practical and fully funded actions” by governments to fulfill their 15 years of promises about investing in equality, human rights and social and economic development, especially for women and girls.

After three days of talks and a late-night session, the Forum released a five-point Berlin Call to Action urging the international community to meet the 2015 deadline for achieving the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

The ICPD brought about a seismic change in thinking on these issues and created a “visionary global consensus” among 179 governments that moved the global debate from ideas of “control” and “demographics” to a focus on sexual and reproductive health and well-being, with a new emphasis on individual rights and gender equality.

“As urgent as the ICPD agenda was in 1994, it is even more so today,” said the declaration. “We demand that all governments fulfill the commitments made to their own people and the international community at Cairo in 1994.”

Many United Nations and international meetings have reaffirmed the Cairo Consensus ever since, including its key elements in the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, the Cairo Consensus pledged investments that in too many cases have not been made.

“With five years left,” the Berlin Call to Action said, “we call on local, national and international decision-makers to join with non-governmental organizations to establish and implement concrete, practical and fully-funded actions for ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

The Berlin Call to Action NGOs urged immediate national, government and international action to:

• Guarantee that sexual and reproductive rights, as human rights, are fully recognized and fulfilled, through legal reforms and new family policies;
• Invest in comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information, supplies and services as a priority in health systems strengthening, by increasing access for all (especially in emergency settings) to family planning and skilled maternal and newborn health care, and to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services, and by addressing unsafe abortion as a public health and human rights issue;
• Ensure the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents and young people, by removing barriers to their access to information and services and empowering them to make policies and informed decisions about their own lives;
• Create and implement formal mechanisms for meaningful civil society participation in programs, policy and budget decisions, monitoring and evaluation, by protecting advocates as human rights defenders, involving young people, marginalized groups and NGOs in policy dialogue and guaranteeing them autonomy; and
• Ensure that donor contributions and national budgets and policies meet the needs of all people for sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially during times of economic stress.

The NGOs also asked decision-makers to adopt principles of equity and equality, inclusiveness and transparency, accountability and sustainability, and processes free from fundamentalist doctrines that restrict human rights.

“Human beings cannot live in dignity without the full implementation of the ICPD Program of Action,” the statement said. “It is a matter of human rights, democracy and equality for all.”

Opening of the Global NGO Forum

During the week, a news conference took place at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is co-hosting the Forum with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany’s Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, pleaded for new investment and political commitment on behalf of women and girls worldwide. In her ten-point Berlin Clarion Call: The Spirit of Cairo Lives On, the minister called for recognition of women’s human rights as key to sustainable progress on economic development, and for universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services by 2015, the target date that the ICPD Programme of Action shares with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The minister also called for universal access to measures to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, low-cost or subsidized health and social services, greater investment in infant and maternal health, stronger partnerships with civil society, greater attention to population dynamics, an end to discrimination in access to and use of health services, and pursuit of the MDGs beyond 2015.

“We call for special protection for the poorest and weakest, particularly in these times of economic and financial crisis,” she said. “The economic stimulus programmes being implemented by donor countries should therefore allocate 1 percent of the funding to development policy measures.”

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, noted that “An additional dollar invested in voluntary family planning comes back at least four times in saved expenses. It would cost the world only US$23 billion per year to stop women from having unintended pregnancies and dying in childbirth, and to save millions of newborns—less than 10 days of the world’s military spending.”

Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and now UNDP administrator, said she has asked her staff for a country-by-country assessment of gaps in progress toward achievement of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and a list of what UNDP can do to help.

“We have no hope of reaching the MDGs if 50 percent of the world’s people are not afforded equal opportunities,” she said. “We recognize the linkages between these issues and every other aspect of development.”

Gill Greer, Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, called on conference participants to demand renewed action from their governments. “By insisting that governments keep their promises of 15 years ago, and by showing that sexual and reproductive health is a cost-effective long-term investment, we are playing an essential role in this process,” she said.

Youth Forum

At a Youth Forum on September 1, preceding the NGO Forum, young activists called for an end to widespread stigma against sex discussions and education so that young people could access accurate and timely information about their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The 80 young delegates recommended that in assessing 15 years of work since the ICPD, the NGO Forum should emphasize young people’s right to be fully involved in government decision-making on policies that affect their lives. “With such an exchange, the ICPD Programme of Action becomes a living document that fully addresses young people’s needs,” said Imane Khachani, a member of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, which sponsored the symposium.

The overall Forum theme was “Invest in Health, Rights and the Future.” The event was co-hosted by the Government of Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and UNFPA, the UN Population Fund, with additional support from the MacArthur Foundation.

For information on the Forum and the full text of the Berlin Call to Action, visit www.globalngoforum.org

Click below for the following press releases:

NGO Forum Closing Promises New Action on Women’s Health and Rights (September 4)

Forum Demands Concrete Action On Cairo Commitments (September 4)

Forum on Women’s Health and Rights Opens With Claim on Economic Stimulus Funds (September 2)

Investment in Women Critical to Development, Says UN Development Chief (September 2)

European Union Surpasses United States As Single Greatest Population Donor (September 2)

Indian Film Star, Director Lives Her Commitment to Women (September 2)

Young People Call for End to Stigma Against Sex Discussions and Sex Education (September 1)

Click below for the following statements:

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development

Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director

Helen Clarke, UNDP Administrator

Dr. Gill Greer, Director-General, IPPF, International Planned Parenthood Federation

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