Addis Ababa — - The African Regional Conference on Population and Development opened on Monday, 30 September commencing a four day intensive discussion of regional priorities fueled by expert inputs from across the continent at the UN Conference Centre (UNCC) in Addis Ababa, Africa's 'New Flower'..
In his welcoming address, Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), told convened experts, representatives of the African Union Commission and its regional economic communities, UN agencies as well as youth and civil society groups that the high level government participation at the conference is gratifying.
"We are gratified to see the high level of Government participation at this Conference, which underscores the great importance you attach to the ICPD beyond 2014 review," he said.
Representatives of fifty two nations attended the expert meeting with participants being drawn from regional and national experts in the field of population development, sectoral ministries, alongside representatives of African youth and civil society.. The experts meeting will assist countries to share best practices, persistent challenges and emerging issues in the implementation of the programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development. ICPD which was born on the African continent, in Cairo in 1994, set out a vision for sustainable development based on rights based approaches to population in particular through the empowerment of women and girls.
According to the Deputy Executive Secretary, ECA has jointly been working with the African Union and UNFPA to provide an intergovernmental platform that would support the translation of the ICPD into regional realities, since the its programme was adopted by member states in 1994.
He also noted that since Cairo ICPD, Africa has seen steady economic and social development.
"Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are African. In 2012, while global growth declined by 2.7%, due to economic crisis, Africa bucked the trend and grew at 5%," he said in his welcoming remarks. "Notably, all our sub-regions grew faster than the global average with the highest rate being 6.3% and the lowest one 3.5%," he added.
Speaking on behalf of Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA, his Deputy Anne-Brigitte Alberctsen, highlighted Africa's achievements in relation to the dramatic reduction of maternal, infant and child mortality since 1994. She also drew attention to the region's response to HIV/AIDS which has led to reductions in the transmission rates in almost all countries. The region's responsiveness to the collection of data on achivements, gaps and challenges was a sign of their on-going commitment, she continued,
"The ICPD Beyond 2014 global survey, which was completed by 52 of 54 countries in the (Africa) region, shows an overwhelming number of commitments with strong commitment to the eradication of poverty; creating employment opportunities for youth; ensuring right and access to sexual and reproductive health services, including HIV prevention for young people; eliminating mother-to child transmission of HIV; increasing women's access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services; and promoting environmental resources management," she told the convening experts.
There are however still gaps in the achievement of the vision of Cairo, that require further commitment and action from African governments. vision set out by governments in Cairo..
"Despite the gains and tremendous progress since 1994, this region faces serious challenges. Africa continues to lag behind other regions and there remain significant inequalities in access to quality services, information and education across and within countries in Africa," she told the opening session of the conference.
She further explained that inequality, social exclusion, gender inequity, poor governance and corruption in some areas, and lack of participation by women, young people and other marginalised groups, underscored by limitedresearch and data, , continue to hold the region back and limit region's great potential for sustainable economic growth and development.
Regarding employment and social protection, which have been repeatedly highlighted by youth leaders in the conference pre-meetings as major issues and priorities for youth in the continent, she stated that "the weaknesses of the labour market and the fragility of social protection and health systems exacerbate insecurity and are critical issues that require serious attention".
Highlighting the potential for Africa to transform the fortunes of its people by effectively responding to social development issues, "Africa's current demographic transition is going to be crucial for Africa's future. With an unprecedented youth bulge, how Africa deals with the transition could make or break the continent," she continued. Despite an overall decline in fertility rates since Cairo, the rates are still too high in most countries to create the window of opportunity for a demographic dividend." " she said figuratively explaining Africa's population growth.
Presentations on these issues on the themes of "Framing Africa's Future" and "Demographic Dividend for Africa's Development Transformation" are expected to provide evidence of effective interventions and recommendations for action that will be incorporated into a common position document on ICPD beyond 2014 in the African region.
The review of ICPD and the expected recommendations for the period after 2014 is being done based on UN general Assembly's resolution 65/234, which mandated the operational review.
The year 2014 represents a watershed in the life of the ICPD as it marks the 20th anniversary since 179 governments committed to a two-decade PoA to deliver human rights based development. The commitment came in Cairo, Egypt where the ICPD PoA was adopted in 1974.
The ICPD Beyond 2014 review will culminate in two reports - a global report capturing data from national, regional and other sources, and a shorter one based on the former by the UN Secretary-General.
A Special Session of the UN General Assembly will be held on 22 September, 2014 to review the status of implementation of the ICPD based on the analytical reports of the global survey and other thematic reports. The main focus of these reports is expected to be on remaining gaps and challenges as well as barriers and facilitators for achieving full implementation.
Accordingly, all regions are holding regional conferences to review the implementation of ICPD, as part of the global ICPD beyond 2014 review. The regional reviews and their outcomes will contribute to the global review reports and to the 2014 CPD and Special Session of General Assembly.
Africa's ICPD beyond 2014 review, therefore, comprises of a comprehensive survey leading to country reports and implementation profiles, a regional report based on the survey of the regional conference. The African Regional Conference is, thus, expected to culminate with an adoption of Africa Common Position on ICPD Beyond 2014 review.
