<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b>—The implementation of the Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) makes an essential contribution towards achieving the world’s development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration.</p>

<p> <b>KHARTOUM</b>—Continuing violence and displacement in the Darfur region of western Sudan are having devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of women and girls, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, warned this week after a UN <a href="http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/9ef960f279b949af85256e89004f5e82?OpenDocument" target="_blank">humanitarian assessment team</a> visited the region.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – Internationally acclaimed demographer, John C. Caldwell, and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, a pioneer in the treatment of childbirth injuries, have won the 2004 United Nations Population Award.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – A group of young people from around the world will advise UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, on the best ways to recognize and promote the rights and needs of youth within national development plans.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has dispatched supplies for safe childbirth, blood transfusion equipment, medications to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and other medical provisions to protect the reproductive health of thousands of Sudanese displaced by ongoing fighting in the western region of Darfur.</p>

<p> <b>PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti</b> – An airlift of emergency medical supplies from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has arrived in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.</p>

<p class="bodytext"> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – Developing countries and the European Union have expressed strong recommitments to the principles, objectives and goals of the Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b>–UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has warned that lack of resources to fully implement the 20-year Programme of Action of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development would lead to substantial increases in maternal, infant and AIDS-related deaths.</p>

<p> <b>SANTIAGO, Chile</b> -- By a nearly unanimous decision, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean today reaffirmed support for the population and reproductive health action plan adopted at Cairo ten years ago.</p>

<p> <b>AMSTERDAM</b>—Pledging “to break the silence and taboos on culture and religion and their relation to reproductive and sexual health and rights,” Agnes van Ardenne, Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation and Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, concluded an international conference here with a promise “to establish a permanent dialogue on these vital issues.”</p>

<p> <b>RAFAH</b> – The living conditions of Palestinian women - including their access to health, education, food and employment - have been deeply affected by movement restrictions, military incursions and house demolitions, particularly in Rafah, where almost 10,000 Palestinians including many women, have been made homeless.</p>

<p> <b>UNITED NATIONS, New York</b> – Young artists from over 40 countries took part in the 2003 International Poster Contest organized by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.</p>