Closing Speech by H.E. Ms. Lindiwe Zulu, Secretary of PPD Board and Minister of Social Development of South Africa at the Nairobi Summit on the ICPD+25, 12-14 November 2019, Nairobi, Kenya


Linidia-Zulu-Closing-SpeechI am Lindiwe Zulu, Minister of Social Development of South Africa, speaking on behalf of Partners in Population and Development (PPD), an inter-governmental organization of 27 developing countries, in which over 60% of the world’s population live.

It is indeed a great honor for me to offer closing remarks at this – what you will all agree with me – has been a highly successful Nairobi Summit on the ICPD+25 held against the theme: “Accelerating the Promise.”

We are deeply appreciative of the legendary leadership, hospitality and support of the Government of Kenya in hosting us.

Throughout these three days, we welcomed thousands of participants, including; Royalty, Heads of State and Government, Prime Ministers, Vice Prime Ministers and Ministers from around the world, as well as international, national agencies and institutions.

Our hope is that conferences of this nature should not end with discussions only – but move towards implementation, implementation, implementation – this will ensure that when we meet again, we are providing progress reports on the improvement of the quality of life of all the peoples of the world.

The PPDs 16th International Inter-Ministerial Conference held in Tunisia earlier this year, adopted the Tunis Commitments, which included the 3 zeros, namely;

  •  To end preventable Maternal Deaths;
  •  To eliminate the unmet need for contraception; and
  • To end gender based violence and harmful practices.

Additional commitments were made to promote South-South and Triangular Cooperation. As far as South-South and Triangular Cooperation are concerned, we should commit to the following:

  1. Increased financial resources, including domestic, bilateral and multilateral funding, to launch transformational and effective South-South and Triangular Cooperation programmes to improve reproductive health and reduce maternal and underfive mortality rates;
  2. Include South-South and Triangular Cooperation in domestic and global population and reproductive health strategies and programmes;
  3. Adopt and strengthen national policies to advance South-South and Triangular Cooperation, including through; sharing of knowledge, lessons learned and good practices; and technical cooperation in the field of population and development;
  4. Make more efforts to support the development of more effective Centers of Excellence on South-South and Triangular Cooperation for population and development.

Excellencies, over the past 25 years, developing countries have contributed substantially towards promoting South-South Cooperation. Earlier this year, the PPD Member Countries adopted a Strategic Plan for South-South Cooperation (2020-2024); to expedite the progress of the ICPD Programme of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals through partnership building with UN agencies, including the UNFPA. We therefore call on the rest of the international community to support the PPD to implement this important Strategic Plan.

We wish to thank the UNFPA for partnering with PPD towards improving reproductive health and population development in developing countries.

Lastly, let us all use the rich knowledge that we have gained here, and the partnerships we have forged, and reestablished, to build on the achievements of the last 25 years, to attain the objectives of the ICPD Programme of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Asante Sana!

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