Countries around the world have made impressive progress in carrying out a bold action plan that links poverty alleviation to women's rights and universal access to reproductive health.

But, a shortfall of the funds pledged by international donors is undermining critical efforts to provide family planning services, reduce maternal death, prevent HIV/AIDS and meet the needs of young people and the poor, says the State of World Population 2004 report, produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

UNFPA representative Hetty Sarjeant said these were the key issues in the report, which is subtitled 'The Cairo Consensus at Ten: Population, Reproductive Health and the Global Effort to End Poverty'.

In September 1994, some 179 countries adopted a landmark 20-year Programme of Action at the international Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo.

It called for universal access to reproductive health care by 2015, as a key measure to empower women, ensure human rights, reduce poverty, protect the environment and foster sustainable development.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade KD Knight said as he accepted a copy of the report presented to him last Wednesday that "significant progress has been made in Jamaica in the 'domestication' of the Cairo Agenda."

"Our commitment to integrate population issues into development is evident in the formulation of several successfully policies, plans and programmes as an integral part of the enjoyment of basic human rights," Knight said.

The report examines the progress countries have made and the obstacles they have encountered to the half-way point in implementing the ICPD plan.

According to Kirk Phillips, director of corporate services at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), some of Jamaica's outstanding achievements in the implementation of the ICPD programme over the last 10 years include:

. the establishment of an adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive health component in the national reproductive health programme

. greater focus on males in the delivery of sexual and reproductive health programmes and services

. development and implementation of policies and programmes in the area of population, children, youth, elderly, poverty, disability and family life education, and

. development and passage of the Domestic Violence Act.
The report points out that internationally progress has been uneven and enormous challenges remain.

"In the face of these challenges, the response of the international community has been inadequate. Donor support for contraceptives and condoms for HIV prevention has declined over the past decade," says Sarjeant.

"Unless international assistance rises to the level agreed to at the Cairo conference, the numbers of people who need family planning, maternal, health care and HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment will continue to grow."

The UNFPA representative adds that this year's report was, above all, a call to mobilise the political will and resources needed to realise the Cairo vision.

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