Africa: UNFPA at 50 and ICPD@25: The Journey
By Mabingue Ngom – At the UNFPA we are celebrating two significant milestones of immense importance globally as well as in Africa – the 50th anniversary of the setting up of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
It was in an African city, Cairo, that 179 governments adopted a revolutionary Programme of Action and called for women’s reproductive health and rights to take centre stage in national and global development efforts.
The resulting Plan of Action has been the steering document for the work of the UNFPA. Its core message is: “The full and equal participation of women in civil, cultural, economic, political and social life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of discrimination on grounds of sex.”
Now, 25 years later, the ICPD meets in another African city, Nairobi, to review and assess the progress these remarkable organisations have made and also to gird up to tackle the challenges that still remain.
At UNFPA, our mission is clear and straightforward: to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
However, while the destination is clear, the road ahead is arduous and often full of obstacles requiring intimate understanding of people’s cultural mores, their fears and their hopes. It is work that requires a gentle touch, infinite patience and boundless stamina.
The UNFPA in West and Central Africa region covers 23 very diverse countries: 14 Francophone (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo); five Anglophone (The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone); three Lusophone (Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé & Príncipe); and one Hispanophone (Equatorial Guinea).
Despite their diversity, these countries also share many common traits such as the Muslim and Christian religions, which play very important parts in the daily lives of the people; many are severely affected by the negative effects of climate change and the region has also been destabilised by the activities of terrorist groups like Boko Haram and Daesh and the fallout from the collapse of the regime in Libya and the subsequent spread of armed militias.
This is the wider reality in which we operate and we have to factor in all these issues, as well as the enduring power of custom and tradition that for centuries has delineated gender boundaries and roles – as well as the reproductive process.
But, while the working environment has been difficult for what we have set out to achieve, the need to do so in this setting is ever more critical.
For over 25 years, UNFPA has chalked up some major successes in our objectives to promote maternal and child health and family planning; and to combat harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, gender-based violence and early marriage.
Over this period, rates of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage have fallen globally. In the 30 countries where FGM is most prevalent, nearly half of girls had undergone it in 1994, compared to less than a third today. In 1994, one third of young women were married before the age of 18, compared to less than a quarter today.
FGM – which is not just an African problem, but a global one – is falling wherever it is being combated, but 50 million girls in Africa, out of the 68 million at-risk girls worldwide, will be at risk between now and 2030.
While maternal mortality rates globally have shown a sharp decline from 2000, they are still too high in parts of Africa where in some countries, maternal mortality rates are increasing.
The continent’s total population will increase from 1 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2030, and three billion in 2065, with a population of 531 million young people in 2065 (30.2% of the total population).
UNFPA is a strong advocate of the demographic dividend and has great faith in our youth to use their originality and inventiveness to leap-frog into the 4th Industrial Revolution and usher in a new era of prosperity for the continent.
In 2016, we launched a campaign called #PutYoungPeopleFirst; it has a reach of an estimated 3.6 million youth on social media. However, I am fully aware that unless the enabling environment is in place, the demographic dividend could well turn into a demographic nightmare.
Most of the work done by UNFPA-WCARO revolves around a clear focus: capturing the demographic dividend, which will kick-start the continent’s long-awaited economic boom. But for this to happen, it is vital to change the discourse surrounding population issues by linking demography to unmet social demands, the labour market, migration and, of course, instability.
Acceleration in economic growth is the result of changes in the age structure of the population with fewer dependants per member of the active population. Additionally, with fewer people to support, educate, feed, clothe and care for, countries have a window of opportunity for quicker growth.
It is estimated that achieving the dividend could generate exceptional economic growth in Africa of around $500 billion a year for at least 30 years, based on the Asian experience.
This unprecedented potential requires changes in the population structure, the empowerment of women and improvements to health and education. The watchword is no longer birth control, but voluntary family planning based on human rights, where each individual or couple chooses the number of children they wish to have, and when.
Our efforts are aimed at spreading the right messages through the right messengers. In addition to artists, the focus is now on the most respected members of their societies: religious and traditional leaders who fully understand the importance of the issue.
At the national and continental level, coherent policies and investment in human capital are needed, because the dividend is far from automatic. While African countries have all the resources needed to move the demographic dividend forward, they need strong international partnerships. It is up to us to show our partners that we deserve more support. It will take partnerships to turn things around. Family planning is no longer simply a question of controlling the demographic growth of developing countries, but also of social change.
Moving beyond family planning requires the empowerment of women, as well as more comprehensive sexual and reproductive health measures and a massive effort to enrol girls in school. If we can do this, virtuous circles of change are then set in motion, placing African countries in the driving seat, rather than the passenger seat, with development partners on hand to support them in fulfilling their aspirations.
However, good intentions are not enough. We must follow through with implementation. Many African countries have taken the responsibility of their development in their own hands through programmes such as Agenda 2063 and various other plans but many still continue to drag their feet when it comes to implementation.
We do not have the luxury of putting off the necessary action. Demographic forces cannot be halted; they can either be ridden to a bright new future, or they can overwhelm us all.
Our philosophy is to build the future by addressing the pressing needs of the most vulnerable today. The aim is to ensure that nothing will ever be the same again.
