Daily Times

The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 was held in the Kenyan capital last month, with partners making bold commitments to transform the world by ending all maternal deaths, unmet need for family planning and gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls by 2030. Coming 25 years after the original 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo were Pakistan played a leading role, the Nairobi Summit will be remembered as a watershed moment which set in motion the actions which saved lives, lifted millions of women and girls, their families and communities from exclusion and marginalization, and enabled nations to harness the demographic dividend to grow their economies.

The Summit, co-convened by the governments of Kenya and Denmark with UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, unveiled critical new data about the cost of achieving these goals. Pakistan’s delegation was led by the State Minister of Health Dr Zafar Mirza and consisted of a broad mix of federal, provincial, civil society, youth and academic representatives.

Pakistan’s bold commitments and action under Dr Zafar Mirza’s leadership left a profound impression with global leaders in Nairobi, reigniting Pakistan’s mantle as a leading nation to address health issues related to women and youth. “Pakistan have made significant progress on many accounts in last 25 years. Between 1990 and 2018 antenatal care has increased from 14% to 51%, skilled birth attendance increased from 17 to 69% in the same period. More important for us however we are unsatisfied with the progress we have made and we acknowledge the need for an accelerated action on many accounts for our children, youth, women, men and our transgender fellow citizens,” said Dr Zafar Mirza had said in his speech.

“Even in the time of economic difficulty our government has prioritized these issues and we have initiated mega multi-billion rupees projects financed mainly through domestic resources. Like the Kamyab Jawan Program for youth empowerment through economic support and women empowerment. Or the Ehsaas program which means Empathy, a comprehensive poverty alleviation and social protection. We have also initiated social health insurance for the poor families and until now around 5 million families have been provided coverage.”

Pakistan has set time-bound targets and the government is committed to achieving them. The government aims to lower our total fertility rate from 3.8 to 2.8 children by 2025 and 2.2 by 2030. It will achieve this by simultaneously increasing Contraceptive Prevalence rate from 35% to 50% by 2025 and 60% by 2030. It also aims at reducing MMR from 170 to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030 through increasing skilled birth attendance, access to modern contraception through integrating these at primary health care level and through expanded coverage of Lady Health Workers.

A population fund worth 10 billion/per annum is being created which will be replenished every year. As Pakistan’s commitment to convention of the rights of child, it is legislating and will enforce with full force Early Child Marriage Restraints Act besides adopting zero tolerance policy on violence against women and girls.

The Nairobi Summit mobilized more than 1,200 commitments from around the world, including billions of dollars in pledges from public and private sector partners. It also raised the voices of marginalized communities, youth and grassroots advocates, who were able to directly engage heads of state and policymakers about how to realize the rights and health of all people. Over 9,500 delegates from more than 170 countries took part in this radically inclusive conference, uniting behind the Nairobi Statement, which establishes a shared agenda to complete the ICPD Programme of Action.

Governments including Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, together with the European Commission, committed around $1 billion in support. The private sector also stepped in: Children’s Investment Fund (CIF), The Ford Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, Philips, World Vision and many other organizations announced that they will mobilize some $8 billion in combined new pledges.

The writer is spokesperson for Ministry of Health