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Population and Poverty
The Cairo goal of universal access to quality reproductive
health services by 2015 is not one of the MDGs.
This has led to concern that reproductive health
might get short-changed in efforts to better direct
resources to development priorities. But as the ICPD
affirmed, this goal is fundamental to reducing poverty,
child and maternal mortality, and the spread of
HIV/AIDS.
As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated in
a message to the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population
Conference, held in Bangkok in December 2002, “The Millennium Development Goals, particularly the
eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, cannot be
achieved if questions of population and reproductive
health are not squarely addressed. And that means
stronger efforts to promote women’s rights, and
greater investment in education and health, including
reproductive health and family planning.”
Much more needs to be done to ensure synergy
between the MDGs and the goals of the ICPD, but
encouraging progress has been made. Two of the UN
Millennium Project’s expert task forces (in the areas
of gender equality and child and maternal health)
have strongly endorsed “universal access to sexual
and reproductive health” as a strategic priority for
attaining the MDGs.(1)
All countries are required to report to the General
Assembly on progress towards the MDGs, through
National Millennium Development Goals Reports.
Ten of the first reports published listed reproductive
health as a goal, and an additional four wrote about
reproductive health issues. Nine provided data on the
contraceptive prevalence rate (the most frequently
used indicator to monitor access to reproductive
health care); 10 others made reference to it.
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