| National
South-South Support Structure Workshop
10
November 2009, Nigeria
Address
by
Mr. Harry S. Jooseery
Partners in Population and
Development (PPD)
H.E.
Dr. Shamsudeem Usman, Honourable Minister/Deputy
Chairman National Planning commission,
Board Member, Partners in Population
and Development (PPD) Government of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dr.
Agathe Lawson, Resident Representative,
Nigeria
Your
Excellency, Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen: First of all,
I wish to express my appreciation
and thanks to H. E. Mr., Minister,
and to the government of Nigeria for
hosting this event and inviting me
to be part of it. I also wish to thank
them for the warm hospitality accorded
to me.
I feel greatly honored and privileged
to stand before you today to make
a statement on behalf of PPD on this
important occasion of National South-South
Workshop jointly organized by the
National Planning Commission of Nigeria
and PPD. The presence of H.E. the
minister and such a wide range of
officials at this function is the
clearest indication one can get of
the Nigeria’s commitment to
addressing national and continent-wide
population issues in an integrated
manner. I would also like to thank
Dr. Agathe Lawson, for sparing her
precious time to be with us despite
her very busy schedule. I thank her
and UNFPA for the technical and financial
support provided to PPD for organizing
different events. PPD and UNFPA are
sister organizations and we enjoy
very privileged relationship. The
UNFPA office in Nigeria has always
been supportive to PPD and has sponsored
our Board Member and Senior officials
from the Government to our governance
meetings and related events for years.
This year our Board Meeting was held
on 19th of October in Beijing, China
which also coincided with the 5th
Asia Pacific Conference on Sexual
and Reproductive Health and Rights.
For those events we once again sought
assistance from UNFPA country office
and we are happy to declare that UNFPA
had extended their helping hands as
usual. Dr. Lawson, thank you once
again for your support.
I am pleased to welcome you all at
the opening of this National South-South
Workshop; your presence is by all
means, very important! As you all
know today, the South holds a vast
store of knowledge and experience
that has been accumulated through
years of experimentation and investment
in governance and economic reform,
education and healthcare, experiences
which have yielded rich dividends
in countries across the developing
world. That is why PPD believes, South
holds the key to solving their own
problems; which is to promote cooperation
within themselves and share the unique
knowledge and resources they have.
Your
Excellency, ladies and gentlemen:
PPD, the intergovernmental organization
was established within the framework
of ICPD in 1994 to further strengthen
all efforts of addressing the ICPD
program of action with greater vigor
and efficiency. We are an alliance
of 25 developing countries believing
in South-South cooperation to bring
about sustainable changes in the lives
of our people. Our primary mandate
is to promote, coordinate and support
South-South and triangular cooperation
on a Global and United Nations system-wide
basis.
Less than five years remain to achieve
the Program of Action, agreed to at
the International Conference on Population
and Development (ICPD). The Program
of Action provided the foundation
stone-a blueprint in fact-to achieve
the eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). The heart of the Program of
Action and a target under MDG 5 is
universal access to sexual and reproductive
health and protection of reproductive
rights. Only when we achieve this
target will we secure social justice
and human rights for all.
It
is unfortunate to note that for the
past 10 years, investment in social
welfare in most developing countries
has staggered at a low level. For
example, funding for family planning
as a percentage of all population
assistance has fallen from 55% in
1995 to 7% in 2005. Family Planning
has lost focus amidst shifts in international
health and development priorities.
There is a need to reposition Family
Planning into the development agenda.
No development is sustainable unless
we address Reproductive Health and
Population issues. In the developing
world, an estimated 137 million women
who want to avoid a pregnancy, are
not using any Family Planning method.
The situation aggravates in Sub-Saharan
Africa which has the highest fertility
rate in the world with 5-6 births
per women. Only 18% of married women
in Sub-Saharan Africa are using a
modern Family Planning method. 35
million women in Sub-Saharan Africa
have an unmet need for Family Planning.
The percentage of unintended pregnancies
in Lesotho is 50, Kenya 45, Uganda
46, Ghana 40 and one in every 3 births
is unintended in Congo, Ethiopia,
Senegal and Zimbabwe. There are about
5 million abortions each year in Sub-Saharan
Africa, 98% of which are illegal,
clandestine and unsafe. In developing
countries a women’s lifetime
risk of dying due to pregnancy and
childbirth is 1:7, 160 times higher
than in developed countries, in Sub-Saharan
Africa the risk is highest in the
world, 1:22 that is 3500 times higher
than in developed countries.
Your Excellency, ladies and
gentlemen: With a projected
population of 155 million in 2009,
Nigeria is by far the most populous
country in Africa, and faces challenges
related to its size and the pace of
population growth of 2.3 per cent
per year. The total fertility rate
is 5.2, while use of modern contraception
among women of reproductive age is
only 15 per cent for any method (2007).
Women in Nigeria have a very high
fertility rate, averaging 5.7 children
per woman, yet poor access to proper
obstetric care makes each birth a
risky experience. The large number
of children in this country which
is one of the 20 least-developed countries
in the world also makes it difficult
to provide each with a decent life
– or even a life at all. Nearly
one in five Nigerian children dies
before reaching their fifth birthday,
according to UNICEF. Here, condoms
and other forms of contraception can
save the lives. In Nigeria, promoting
condoms is a doubly important task,
as unprotected sex is a risky proposition.HIV/AIDS
has reached epidemic levels in Nigeria.
For Nigeria, it was estimated that
3.4 million people were living with
the virus in 2005, with women and
girls accounting for 50%. Almost 4
per cent of the country’s adults
were HIV-positive in 2008. These,
indeed, are grim figures. The fertility
rate in 2008 was 5.01 children per
woman surviving her childbearing years.
The life expectancy for the Nigerian
was only 47 years in 2008.
The
weak health system and harmful traditional
and religious practices continue to
present significant barriers to efforts
aimed at promoting sexual and reproductive
health and attaining the health-related
MDGs.
Women
are disadvantaged in employment, access
to credit, education, land ownership
and participation in government. Women’s
health is also hindered by gender-based
violence, lack of adequate nutrition
during pregnancy and female genital
mutilation/cutting. Up to 800,000
Nigerian women live with obstetric
fistula as a result of early pregnancy
and obstructed labor. The adolescent
fertility rate is 126 births per 1,000
girls aged 15 to 19. Nigeria has one
of the world’s highest maternal
mortality ratios and only 35 per cent
of women have a skilled attendant
at birth. National policies on reproductive
health, HIV/AIDS, women and youth
exist, but poor dissemination and
implementation of policy documents
and low utilization of funds allocated
by the Government to implement planned
programmes limits progress.
Significant progress has been made
in some key areas aimed at the promotion
of sexual and reproductive health.
On the positive side, Nigeria has
reformulated and adopted a population
policy, which is now in line with
a rights-based, people centered strategy.
Other women-based policies put in
place are dealing with elimination
of female genital mutilation, adolescent
health, legal reforms to eliminate
domestic violence and raising age
at marriage to 18 years. The contraceptive
prevalence rate, while still low,
has tripled since 1990, and a national
reproductive health policy has been
adopted and implementation is well
underway. A federal budget line has
been created for emergency obstetric
care, in addition to the support mobilized
by partners towards scaling up the
Maternal Neonatal and Child Health
(IMNCH) strategy and Roadmap for the
reduction of maternal mortality. The
results of the 2008 demographic and
health survey (DHS) will increase
the availability of demographic and
health information, particularly new
data on gender-based violence and
obstetric fistula and will enable
state level data analysis. The establishment
of the Network of Women Parliamentarians
is expected to improve capacity to
advocate for gender issues at the
highest level of government.
Your
Excellency, ladies and gentlemen:
In this time of economic uncertainty
there is no more important investment
to be made and we hope Nigeria will
continue making that valuable investment
for its women. Only healthy women
whose human rights are protected can
be fully productive workers and effective
participants in their country's political
processes. Only when women are healthy
and empowered can they raise and educate
healthy children. These are the building
blocks of stable societies and growing
economies, and imperative in their
own right.
Let
us all therefore commit to three core
actions in the next five years:
1.
Implement comprehensive reproductive
health services, which include family
planning; skilled care during pregnancy
and delivery and postpartum; access
to safe abortion; prevention, care,
and treatment for sexually transmitted
infections, including HIV.
2. Strengthen health systems to
ensure equitable access to these
services and provide health information
and sexuality education, particularly
for the largest-ever generation
of adolescents.
3. Invest in policies and programs
and legislative and judiciary actions
that give women and girls access
to economic resources, skills training,
and social support and that protect
their human right to have control
over and decide freely and responsibly
on matters related to their sexuality,
including sexual and reproductive
health, free of coercion, discrimination,
and violence.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen:
The South-South cooperation entails
that we have among us the skills,
capabilities and expertise, and if
we can put our efforts together, we
can improve the destiny of our children.
PPD will continue to develop and build
institutional and individual capacities,
continue advocacy for better access
to Family Planning Services, and the
integration of RH with HIV/AIDS for
a balanced sharing of resources, and
work for a secured supply of affordable
and quality RH products and services
in our member countries. In the context
of promoting South-South cooperation
and RH and HIV/AIDS programs in Nigeria,
PPD commits to these points:
1.
Facilitate the supply of RH products
in Nigeria. China and other member
countries are willing to provide
products to Nigeria. We are negotiating
with these countries, and PPD will
coordinate to strengthen relevant
capabilities in Nigeria.
2. To offer fellowships to professionals
and executives of Nigeria in the
fields of RH, and, Population and
Demography.
3.
PPD wishes to create an effective
national support structure in Nigeria
to galvanize efforts to promote
South-South Cooperation, with the
involvement of all stakeholders.
We are aware that while Nigeria
can share a lot of its experiences,
it can also learn from the experiences
of other countries.
4.
Under its Capacity Building program,
PPD will network with institutes
of Nigeria to partner with other
leading institutes in Africa, Asia,
Latin America and the Arab World
to promote research and training
in the fields of RH, Population,
and, Gender and Women Development.
Your Excellency, ladies and gentlemen:
PPD and Nigeria, together, we can
spark the drive to awaken the sleeping
giant. Let us together make sure that
Nigeria can avoid being the last country
to eradicate polio. Let us improve
the Nigerian health sector ranking
as the 187th out of 191 by WHO. Let
us in this workshop understand how
South-South Cooperation can help put
difficult questions on the table,
and suggest a credible, pragmatic
way forward. My firm belief is that
we can achieve a re-energized Nigeria
together with our friends and partners
ready to engage with this emerging
power.
I
thank you for your attention!
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