UNITED NATIONS, New York—More than 160 ministers, parliamentarians, and representatives of regional intergovernmental organizations and other world leaders will gather in Addis Ababa for a High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health – Millennium Development Goal 5. The 26 October event, organized by the Netherlands and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is intended to push maternal health higher on the political agenda and increase political and financial commitment for improving maternal health at the country level.

The High-Level Meeting will be followed with the 2009 International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (IPCI/ICPD). The conference will feature more than 300 legislators and ministers from about 100 nations, who will discuss strategies to speed up the achievement of the Programme of Action that countries adopted at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

The event, on 27-28 October, will mark the 15th anniversary of the ICPD that produced ambitious set of goals for improving reproductive health and rights around the world. It will also provide lawmakers with a chance to consider urgent and strategic measures to significantly reduce the gap remaining between commitment and results, in time for 2014.

The conference, hosted by the Parliament of Ethiopia, is being organized by the Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development (FAAPPD) and UNFPA, along with European, Asian, and Inter-American parliamentarian groups. It will be opened by Teshome Toga Chanaka, Speaker of the House of the Peoples’ Representatives of Ethiopia, and Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director.

Members of the press are invited to the opening sessions of both events and to the following:

26 October 2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. : Press conference by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebeysus, Minister of Health, Ethiopia; Bert Koenders, Minister for Development Cooperation, The Netherlands; and Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director.

28 October 1 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. : Press conference by Khira Lagha Ben Fadhel, Member of Parliament, (Tunisia) and President of FAAPPD; and UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid.

Contact Information:

In New York:
Omar Gharzeddine
gharzeddine@unfpa.org
Tel:  +1 212 297 5028

In Addis Ababa:
George Ngwa
ngwa@unfpa.org
Tel:  + 27 72 617 1032