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Monitoring the Flow of Financial Resources
to Population Activities
The Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) called upon the
international community to "achieve an adequate level of
resource mobilization and allocation, at the community, national
and international levels, for population programmes and for other
related programmes, all of which seek to promote and accelerate
social and economic development, improve the quality of life for
all, foster equity and full respect for individual rights and,
by so doing, contribute to sustainable development".
A strong consensus emerged in Cairo for both
a focused programme on population and reproductive health and
an agreed schedule of resource mobilization. The ICPD estimated
that in the developing countries and countries with economies
in transition, the implementation of programmes in the area of
reproductive health, including those related to family planning,
maternal health and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases,
as well as programmes that address the collection and analysis
of population data, will cost US $17 billion per annum by the
year 2000. Approximately two thirds of the projected costs are
expected to come from domestic sources and one third, or $5.7
billion, from the international donor community.
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| 2000 |
$11.3 |
$5.7 |
$17.0 |
| 2005 |
$12.4 |
$6.1 |
$18.5 |
| 2010 |
$13.7 |
$6.8 |
$20.5 |
| 2015 |
$14.5 |
$7.2 |
$21.7 |
Funding for population has increased since Cairo,
but the goal of moblizing $17 billion for population activities
by the year 2000 has not been met. International population assistance
increased to $2.6 billion in 2000. Donor countries, multilateral
organizations, development banks and private foundations all increased
their funding levels in 2000.
Developing countries continue to mobilize an
important part of scarce resources for population activities. However,
most domestic resource flows originate in a few large countries.
The majority of developing countries have limited financial resources
to utilize for population and reproductive health programmes and
cannot generate the required funds to implement these programmes.
As a result, they rely heavily on international assistance. Both
donor countries and developing countries still have a long way
to go before reaching ICPD goals. The lack of funding remains
one of the chief constraints to the full implementation of the
Programme of Action.
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UNFPA has regularly collected data
and reported on flows of international financial assistance
to population activities. It published its findings
in the annual Global Population Assistance Report.
In light of the ICPD and at the request of the Commission
on Population and Development, UNFPA updated its reporting
system and began collecting data on domestic resource
allocations for population activities. In 1997, UNFPA
began collaborating with the Netherlands Interdisciplinary
Demographic Institute (NIDI) in the collection, analysis
and dissemination of information on resource flows
for population using a system of classification of
population activities that reflects the "costed
population package" of the ICPD Programme of
Action. A resource flows web site (www.nidi.nl/resflows)
was opened in April 1997 with information about the
project, the Global Population Assistance Reports
and the reports of case studies undertaken to monitor
domestic financial resource flows for population activities.
The 1998 edition of the Global Population
Assistance Report was completely revised and expanded
to include, for the first time, a section on domestic
resource flows in developing countries. The title
of the report was changed to reflect the new contents:
Financial Resource Flows for Population Activities.
Current reports continue to monitor progress towards
achievement of the financial targets agreed upon in
Cairo by providing information on both donor assistance
and domestic expenditures for population activities,
including family planning services, basic reproductive
health services, STD/HIV/AIDS activities, and basic
research, data and population and development policy
analysis. The latest available information on resource
flows, that for fiscal year 2000, is posted on both
the UNFPA and resource flows web sites. Data for fiscal
year 2001 is currently being gathered from donors
and developing countries.
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