About UNFPA

UNFPA is the world's largest international source of population assistance, working among all cultures and countries at various stages of development - with a special commitment to the poorest and most vulnerable populations and the least developed nations. In 2001, UNFPA provided assistance to 141 developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

UNFPA's three main areas of work are:

• To help ensure universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, to all couples and individuals on or before the year 2015

• To support population and development strategies that enable capacity-building in population programming

• To promote awareness of population and development issues, and to advocate for the mobilization of resources and political will

The UNFPA mandate - carried out at the global, national and local levels with many valued partners - takes a broad approach to reproductive health and is closely linked to development issues such as poverty reduction and sustainable development. UNFPA is guided by the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (Cairo, 1994).

The ICPD (Cairo, 1994)

UNFPA aims to achieve the goals set forth in the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (Cairo, 1994) for universal education, mortality reduction and universal access to family planning and reproductive health services. The ICPD endorsed a set of interdependent population and development objectives, including sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development, and gender equity and equality. Countries were urged to include population factors in all development strategies, and to act to eliminate gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices.

The Conference focused on the concept of sustainability, emphasizing that environmental and population factors are critical in economic growth. It shifted an emphasis on numerical targets to a comprehensive, integrated approach where services, education and quality care are central elements. Significantly, it also put an end to the concept of population control, recognizing that smaller families and slower population growth depend not on control but on free choice regarding reproductive health care, including a range of family planning information services. Perhaps its chief achievement was to recognize the need to empower women to manage their own lives.

In 1999, a review of global progress towards the goals set forth in the Programme of Action was conducted (ICDP+5). It confirmed that many countries have made significant progress toward the Cairo goals.

New benchmarks for the next five years were identified during the review by the UN General Assembly, which called for intensified action regarding key areas: reproductive and sexual health, maternal mortality, adolescents' reproductive health needs, reducing abortion and addressing the health consequences of unsafe abortion, prevention of HIV/AIDS, gender issues and education.

Goals of the ICPD Programme of Action

• Universal education - Elimination of the gender gap in primary and secondary education by 2005, and complete access to primary school or the equivalent by both girls and boys as quickly as possible and in any case before 2015.

• Mortality reduction - Reduction in infant and under-5 mortality rates by at least one third, to no more than 50 and 70 per 1,000 live births, respectively, by 2000, and to below 35 and 45, respectively, by 2015; reduction in maternal mortality to half the 1990 levels by 2000 and by a further one half by 2015 (specifically, in countries with the highest levels of mortality, to below 60 per 100,000 live births).

• Reproductive health - Provision of universal access to a full range of safe and reliable family-planning methods and to related reproductive and sexual health services by 2015.

Key future actions: ICPD +5

To achieve the vision set forth in Cairo and to meet growing challenges such as HIV/AIDS, countries agreed to take action to meet new benchmarks:

• The 1990 illiteracy rate for women and girls should be halved by 2005. By 2010 the net primary school enrolment ratio for children of both sexes should be at least 90 per cent.

• By 2005, 60 per cent of primary health care and family planning facilities should offer the widest achievable range of safe and effective family planning methods, essential obstetric care, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections including STIs, and barrier methods to prevent infection; 80 per cent of facilities should offer such services by 2010, and all should do so by 2015.

• At least 40 per cent of all births should be assisted by skilled attendants where the maternal mortality rate is very high, and 80 per cent globally, by 2005; these figures should be 50 and 85 per cent, respectively, by 2010; and 60 and 90 per cent by 2015.

• Any gap between the proportion of individuals using contraceptives and the proportion expressing a desire to space or limit their families should be reduced by half by 2005, 75 per cent by 2010, and 100 per cent by 2015. Recruitment targets or quotas should not be used in attempting to reach this goal.

• To reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection, at least 90 per cent of young men and women aged 15 to 24 should have access by 2005 to preventive methods - such as female and male condoms, voluntary testing, counselling, and follow-up - and at least 95 per cent by 2010. HIV infection rates in persons 15 to 24 years of age should be reduced by 25 per cent in the most-affected countries by 2005, and by 25 per cent globally by 2010.

Millennium Development Goals

Goals for action in the new century were spelled out in the United Nations Millennium Declaration of September 2000, when heads of state and government declared a commitment to halve extreme poverty, ensure primary education for boys and girls alike, reduce maternal mortality, and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. All 189 United Nations Member States have pledged to meet these goals by 2015:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger - reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day and suffering from hunger;

• Achieve universal primary education - ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling;

• Promote gender equality and empower women - eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education;

• Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five;

• Improve maternal health - reducing by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio;

• Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;

• Ensure environmental sustainability - integrating sustainable development into country policies and programmes, reducing by half the number of people lacking access to safe drinking water and improving the lives of slum dwellers;

• Develop a global partnership for development - addressing poverty reduction, good governance, open trading, the special needs of the least developed countries and landlocked and small island states, debt, youth employment and access to essential drugs and technologies.

UNFPA is contributing to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by advancing the principles of the ICPD - working to reduce maternal, infant and child mortality; increase education; empower women and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS.