UNITED NATIONS, New York – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, has expressed concern that the world has dropped further behind its Cairo Conference commitment to invest $17 billion a year on population and reproductive health by the year 2000. Preliminary data have put the amount provided in 2001 at about $9.4 billion, down from some $11.2 billion in 2000.

Addressing the Commission on Population and Development yesterday, UNFPA’s Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said that the drop between 2000 and 2001 affected both external assistance and domestic spending by developing countries.

External assistance, Ms. Obaid said, dropped from $2.6 billion in 2000 to $2.3 billion in 2001, representing just 40 per cent of the $5.7 billion target agreed as the developed world’s share of the $17 billion funding for the Cairo Programme of Action. Domestic spending slid from $8.6 billion to a preliminary amount of about $7.1 billion. The sum of $11.3 billion was agreed as developing countries’ share of population financing.

“Given rising demands and HIV/AIDS infections, the mobilization of resources is more critical to the success of the Cairo Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals,” said Ms. Obaid. “The Cairo Programme’s reproductive health goals must be met fully if we are to attain development goals related to health, social and economic outcomes, especially those on girls’ education, women, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS.”

“We already have evidence that when the international community invests in health and education, it reaps rewards for individuals, nations and the world,” Ms. Obaid continued. “One recent example is how the informed decisions of individual men and women made significant contributions to slower global population growth.”

“Whether the world will eliminate illiteracy and gender disparity or add 2.6 billion people will largely depend on the actions that we all take over the next decade,” Ms. Obaid continued, partly referring to projections that world population might rise from today’s 6.3 billion to 8.9 billion persons in 2050.

The flow of financial resources for the Cairo Programme of Action is one of the items before the Commission on Population and Development. Population, education and development as well as demographic trends are also on the agenda.

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UNFPA is the world’s largest multilateral source of population assistance. Since it became operational in 1969, the Fund has provided sustained assistance to developing countries to address their population and development needs.

Contact Information:

Abubakar Dungus
Tel.: +1 (212) 297-5031
Email: dungus@unfpa.org