Princess Basma Marks World Population Day

AMMAN, Jordan — Data are powerful inputs to help promote development, provided they are based on careful and in-depth analysis, Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal said during a ceremony marking World Population Day. This year’s theme was ‘Data for Development: Everyone Counts’.

The Princess is a Goodwill Ambassador of UNFPA, which leads in helping nations mark the day.

“This year’s theme is extremely important as we need to bear in mind that research needs to be people-oriented and take into consideration people’s needs, challenges and aspiration to ensure that they are not figures in the abstract,” said Princess Basma.

The strength of numbers, she continued, lies in their ability to tell stories about needs, changes and trends and give a human face to development efforts.

“At the end, each number is a person that is important and matters,” she said, adding that data provided needed evidence for decision makers to ensure that development efforts made progress at the national level.
Princess Basma then recalled the work of the UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, whose term ends this year.

“Since she took office, her focus was on the importance of taking culture and religious beliefs into account in development programmes of all kinds and clear imprints of her beliefs are evident in the programmes and activities carried out during the last ten years,” said the Princess.

At the end of event, held in cooperation with the Higher Population Council, Princess Basma presented awards to winners of the HPC’s 2010 media competition on population issues. Journalists from several newspapers were honoured.