Saturday, 27 Mar 2004
New York, N.Y.
Despite long days and nights, the U.N. Commission on Population and Development failed to produce an agreement on language to reaffirm the Cairo Consensus and the commitments of member nations to make reproductive health care, including family planning, universally available by 2015. After almost nine hours of negotiations, the chair closed the meeting in frustration.
At the time of my last report, governments were divided into three groups, the G77 (a coalition of developing countries), the European Union and like-minded countries, and the U.S. As of 11:30 EST Thursday night, the E.U. and G77 agreed not to accept U.S. amendments to the reaffirmation statement. In the end, the debate came down to three proposals -- two by the G77 and one by the E.U. -- and a disagreement among members of the E.U. and like-minded nations.
1. The G77 proposed a statement reaffirming the Cairo Consensus that referenced reservations made at earlier meetings.
The U.S. delegations lobbied the G77 nations to ask for reservations, knowing the E.U. countries would not agree. Four G77 countries led the coalition to request that any resolution coming out of the meeting include a reference to reservations made at the 1994 Cairo conference and at the 1999 five-year review.
These requests were in contrast to the statements they made during the first few days of the conference declaring their support of Cairo. More than 90 countries have taken positive action since the 1994 Cairo conference to reduce maternal and infant mortality and improve access to reproductive health care.
2. The E.U. and like-minded countries proposed a clean reaffirmation statement with no reservations attached.
Within the E.U. coalition there is a contingent that would rather have no resolution than one with reservations. Many NGOs, including some European NGOs, disagreed with this position and lobbied to get all E.U. countries to consider compromising on this stance.
3. The G77 is also asking for stronger language on the financial commitments from all countries to fulfill the goals of Cairo.
Most countries, and specifically the U.S., have not lived up to their commitments. At Cairo, it was agreed that developing countries would pay two-thirds of the cost of providing these services, while the donor countries would pay the remaining one-third, with each developed country contributing 0.7 percent of their GNP to development assistance. Currently, the developing countries have met their commitment by 80 percent, while the donor countries have met their commitment by less than 50 percent. Some of the 20 donor countries have actually exceeded the 0.7 percent level of funding. In contrast, the U.S. has fallen behind, ranking last among the 20 donor countries in meeting that commitment.
In the end, the E.U. and the G77 could not agree on the language used to reaffirm Cairo. When the whole commission finally adjourned at 7:30 Friday night there was still no agreement. This is a victory for the U.S. Since the E.U. and G77 nations didn't have a reaffirmation statement, the U.S. did not have to stand alone against the rest of the world.
NWF advocates for increased funding for the goals of Cairo because we believe funding for voluntary family planning is a long-term solution to the pressures from the growing human population on natural resources. Family planning helps the environment by helping people.
Those of us who support Cairo will look to the regional meetings coming this summer and fall and work with countries to reaffirm Cairo in those smaller forums -- including a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean countries meeting in Puerto Rico late June -- and will continue to ask U.S. citizens and organizations to reaffirm Cairo through "A Mother's Promise the World Must Keep." Please join us in telling the U.S. government and the rest of the world that American people reaffirm Cairo even if our government doesn't.
Learn more about A Mother's Promise Campaign at www.amotherspromise.org. To learn more about the CPD conference please contact Caron at Whitaker@nwf.org.
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