World leaders renew pledge to Cairo mandate

Global leaders have renewed their political support for the Cairo mandate that had provided a new vision about the relationship between population and development 20 years back.

The UN population agency, UNFPA says more than 140 heads of states, ministers and high officials from around the world have reaffirmed their countries’ “strong political support” to the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

The commitment was renewed in New York on Monday as member countries discussed strategies beyond 2015, when the UN-set Millennium Development Goals come to an end.

African, Asian and Latin American countries came together in the 1994 ICPD in Cairo and adopted a 20-year Programme of Action, which focused on individuals' needs and rights, rather than on achieving demographic targets.

An intergovernmental mechanism PPD, which is headquartered in Dhaka, promotes partnerships and ‘south-south cooperation’ on population and development under the ICPD.

UNFPA says the world leaders renewed their pledges to the Cairo mandate at a special session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

They also highlighted the achievements and gaps in implementing the ICPD Programme of Action, as well as future priorities for future action, based on a recent global review of the agenda.

They agreed that the ICPD was “as relevant today as in 1994”.

They also noted the considerable progress in achieving its goal over the past two decades, particularly in reducing poverty, improving maternal health and enforcing girls’ education.

However, they added that much must still be done to improve the quality of life of all people.

The Cairo conference was “a global turning point,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his opening statement in the special session.

“Its Programme of Action was built on fundamental principles affirming that development should centre on people. It also emphasised the value of investing in women and girls,” he said.

The UN Secretary-General also lauded UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, for leading “our global push to translate the Cairo Programme of Action into a meaningful change for so many people”.

“The Cairo mandate defined the principle of people-centred development in real terms, and forever changed how we perceive population and development,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin said at the function.

“It shifted the focus from human numbers to human lives, human well-being and human rights.

“Cairo ensured that a bedrock principle of development would be to realise dignity and human rights for all people as a means of achieving our collective goals,” he said.

As global leaders were devising the sustainable development goals after 2015 when MDGs expire, he said: “We cannot talk about sustainable development without addressing women’s empowerment, gender inequality, and discrimination and violence.

“We cannot talk about sustainable development without ensuring that the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all are met.”

These issues, he said, “must be at the heart of the post-2015 agenda to ensure that current and future generations are made up of resilient, adaptive, innovative, creative people capable of building resilient societies”.

Health Minister Mohammed Nasim has represented Bangladesh in the special session.