Parliamentary Question addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs

To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on the 20th anniversary of International Conference on Population and Development, his view on the current status of the action programme; his plans to ensure its approach is reflected in the post 2015 framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

 

Reply

The Programme of Action adopted by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo marked an important new consensus that increasing social, economic and political equality should be the basis for individual well-being, lower population growth, and sustainable development.

 

In April this year, the United Nations Commission on Population and Development met to assess progress in implementing the Programme of Action, twenty years on.  Drawing on data from 176 countries, the UN Population Fund reported significant achievements.

Today, fewer women are dying in pregnancy and childbirth. Worldwide, maternal mortality, while still at an unacceptably high level, fell by nearly half between 1990 and 2010.  More women now have access to education, work and political participation. More children, girls in particular, are going to school; primary school enrolment rates are now approaching 90%.     Nearly 1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty.

 

However, progress remains uneven and fragmented. In the poorest communities, women’s status, maternal mortality, and rates of child marriage, have seen too little progress over the past two decades. Every day, some 800 women will die giving birth.  Worldwide, one in three women report having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. In developing countries, one in three girls are married before the age of 18, with serious consequences for their opportunities for a better life.

 

The Government’s development policy contains an explicit commitment to the Cairo Programme of Action, through efforts that reduce maternal and infant mortality and promote universal access to reproductive healthcare, including ante-natal care and family planning services. We are committed to playing a full and active role in ensuring that the ICPD Programme of Action is fully reflected in the global development framework to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), after 2015.

 

During Ireland’s Presidency of the EU Council last year, we negotiated Council Conclusions which provided a strong EU voice for the Post 2015 Framework, includingsupporting the full and effective implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action. Ireland and South Africa co-facilitated the MDG Special Event in September 2013 which endorsed a strong outcome document.  It provides a clear commitment to maximising progress under the MDGs and a roadmap for the negotiation of a new global development framework post-2015.  Since last year, Ireland has been actively engaged in the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations which is the main intergovernmental forum tasked with developing recommendations on the Post 2015 framework.  We will continue these efforts over the coming year to ensure that the ICPD commitments are at the heart of a new development framework.