UNFPA Welcomes African Experts' Declaration that Population Programmes are Indispensable to Poverty Reduction

UNITED NATIONS, New York—UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, today welcomed African experts’ strong appeal for greater investments in population programmes, which they described as indispensable to poverty reduction and economic development in Africa.

The experts took that stand in the Tunis Declaration they adopted at the end of the five-day Fourth African Population Conference, held in the Tunisian capital from 8 to 12 December. Organized by the Union for African Population Studies and Tunisia’s National Board for the Family and Population, the conference focused on population and poverty in Africa. Conferees stressed that the most pressing challenges in Africa include HIV/AIDS, conflicts, gender inequality and maternal mortality.

"This is a clear stand by African experts on the actions that are vital to poverty reduction and development in their continent," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA's Executive Director. "Evidence from Asia and Latin America already shows that countries that invest more in education and health, including reproductive health and family planning, have advantages that contribute significantly to economic growth, and reduce poverty."

In the Tunis Declaration, the African experts stressed, “investments in population are fundamental to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals." They called on Africa’s development partners to accord population greater priority in decisions on poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Meeting on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, the African experts declared strong support for its Programme of Action and urged governments to honour their commitments to it. African governments, they stressed, should work harder to fulfil their commitments to achieve sustainable balance between population and resources to improve the welfare of Africa’s people.

On HIV/AIDS, the experts strongly urged all African governments and development partners to implement an urgent and sustained response to combat the epidemic. Responses should include prevention, access to affordable medicines and care, as well as strengthened social safety nets for orphans. They stressed that these should be underpinned by gender policies.

The Fourth African Population Conference brought together more than 500 participants, representing researchers, population experts, policy makers and parliamentarians, to share knowledge and experiences on poverty reduction in Africa.

"It is clear, looking, for instance, at the experience of Tunisia shared at the onset of the conference, that population and reproductive health programmes can be successfully implemented with demonstrable results, and poverty overcome," said Fama Hane Ba, the Director of UNFPA's Africa Division, at the conference’s conclusion. "The main lesson learned here is that vision, leadership and strong political commitment to population, gender and reproductive health issues, as well as community involvement are key factors in achieving expected results."

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UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral source of population assistance, providing support to some 150 developing countries, at their request, to meet reproductive health needs and promote development efforts.

Contact Information:

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