With the glaring inequities between rich and poor countries and even within countries, it is easy to doubt the sincerity of governments when they make promises to protect the poor and vulnerable. Eighteen years ago, governments from across the world developed a twenty-year action plan to improve the quality of life for all people with special emphasis on the poor. The plan, called the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, (ICPD PoA) represented a drastic shift in governments’ understanding of the inextricable link between ensuring the wellbeing of people and achieving economic growth and sustainable development. It focussed on promoting human rights and dignity, supporting family planning, sexual and reproductive health and rights, advancing gender equality, insisting on equal access to education for girls, eliminating violence against women, as well as focusing on issues relating to population and protecting the environment.
With just two years remaining before the twenty year anniversary of this historic blueprint for improving people’s lives, have governments’ kept their promise to the world’s poor, and are they being held accountable?
Consider the following facts: in low income countries, 54 per cent of women who want to avoid pregnancy do not have access to contraceptives. Every day, about 1,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth. 99 per cent of these women live and die in developing countries. As many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused. At the end of 2010, 34 million people were living with HIV and every day 7,000 new HIV infections occur, mostly among people in low- and middle-income countries.
Figures for the Caribbean indicate a 1% HIV prevalence among the adult population. Prevalence varies between and within the countries from 0.1% in Cuba, and 1.7% in Jamaica, to 3.1% in the Bahamas. But among most at risk populations in some countries it is as high as 31.8%. At 15%, the unmet need for family planning in Jamaica is significantly less than the average quoted above, but the adolescent fertility rate of 72 births per 1,000 young women (15-19) is still high. So too is the maternal mortality ratio of 83 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The reality of small, vulnerable economies presents governments with genuine challenges in trying to meet the needs of people represented in these figures, and also keep a promise to balance economic growth and human development while struggling to stay afloat during an economic crisis. Geeta Sethi, Director UNFPA Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean, believes that for the most part Caribbean governments take this commitment seriously and are taking ownership of the process.
“UNFPA has met with Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller and also Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago and both have expressed their resoluteness in pursuing people centred development. This I believe is evidence of their commitment to that process which started in 1994”, she said.
“We need the support of influential individuals and organizations including civil society with their strong history of working on the ground and influencing changes in development and human rights to hold governments accountable”, Ms. Sethi said.
From April 12-13 representatives from over 40 civil society organizations (CSOs) in seventeen countries across the Caribbean will gather at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, St. Ann to discuss this landmark commitment and identify strategies and actions that they can take to advance progress towards keeping the promise made in this milestone ICPD agreement. The meeting is being organized by the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network, LACWHN with support from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
The main goal of the meeting is to advance a Caribbean CSO Political Declaration and Action Plan for effective review of the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action in the English, Dutch and French Speaking Caribbean Countries at its 20th anniversary (1994-2014). More specifically, the Consultation aims to sensitize civil society organizations about the plans for the ICPD review at the twenty year mark and beyond, identify priorities and strategic advocacy interventions to influence, monitor and follow-up the ICPD + 20 process. It also provides an opportunity to discuss and elicit inputs into the upcoming Global Survey on the implementation of the ICPD agenda that UNFPA will be conducting in 2012.
The results of the survey will provide the evidence to allow countries to identify actions that they can take to advance the development agenda. Such reviews are mandated by the UN General Assembly to track progress achieved and the constraints faced in implementation. They form a critical part of the efforts to hold governments accountable for the promises made to protect the interests of the most vulnerable.
