UNITED NATIONS, New York – A lack of funds for population and reproductive health programmes is widening the gap between rich and poor countries and increasing maternal deaths and HIV/AIDS infections, Arab parliamentarians declared earlier this month.

Meeting in Rabat, Morocco, at the Fourth Arab Parliamentarian Forum on Population and Development, legislators urged their governments to honour commitments to implement the Programme of Action adopted by 179 governments at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Their Rabat Declaration also called upon donor countries to close the large gap between current support for reproductive health services and the assistance levels agreed to in Cairo.

“The Rabat Declaration underscores the urgency of addressing population and reproductive health issues in the Arab world,” said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. “UNFPA welcomes the efforts of Arab parliaments to place these issues at the top of their national development plans."

With population growth rates among the highest in the world, Arab countries suffer from diminishing job opportunities and an increase in poverty and malnutrition, according to the parliamentarians. That has led youth and adolescents “to attitudes of anger exemplified and expressed in despair, extremism and risky behaviour for their health and society”.

To address these problems, legislators vowed to strengthen efforts to provide Arab youth with academic and vocational training and create suitable job opportunities. They also pledged to articulate laws securing the rights of youth and adolescents to sexual and reproductive health, and to enable them to make the right decisions and choices in that regard. Parliamentarians also urged governments to incorporate reproductive and sexual health in school curricula and to encourage peer education.

Recognizing the crucial role of women in development, participants in the Rabat meeting promised to pass laws that would ensure women’s rights, eliminate the gender gap in education and employment, and prevent violence, from any party, against women. They also pledged to combat sexual harassment and to work to eliminate the unhealthy practice of female genital cutting.

Arab parliamentarians also commended UNFPA for its continued efforts to integrate culture and values into its programmes, and reaffirmed their support for the Fund’s work.

The Rabat Forum was attended by members of 15 Arab parliaments and representatives of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, including national family planning associations.

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UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of population assistance, providing support to developing countries, at their request, to meet reproductive health needs, collect and analyse population data and to integrate population and development strategies into national, regional and global planning.

Contact Information:

Omar Gharzeddine
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5028
Email: gharzeddine@unfpa.org