Nairobi Summit on International Conference on Population and Development ends

The Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 [International Conference on Population and Development] has ended in the Kenyan capital with 160 countries making commitments to promote and protect the rights of women and girls everywhere to a better future.

Convened by the Governments of Kenya and Denmark and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the summit mobilised the political will and financial commitments needed to fully implement the Programme of Action agreed to by 179 governments in 1994 at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

Over 9500 participants from more than 170 countries with a sense of shared purpose attended the three-day summit

Commitments

Countries committed to increasing national health budgets to expand access to modern contraceptives and to train midwives and other health workers.

They pledged to pass laws to prevent gender-based violence and to eliminate female genital mutilation.

They also committed to greater inclusion, of people with disabilities and of anyone who has been excluded, so that everyone can access services and enjoy full and equal rights.

Governments further promised to include young people in decision-making and to set in motion actions to harness the demographic dividend to grow their economies.

Closing statement

In her closing statement, the Executive Director of the UNFPA, Dr Natalia Kanem observed that the overwhelming commitments by member states attest to the extraordinary relevance and resonance of the agenda in countries across the globe.

“We are closer than ever to realising the clear vision of the ICPD Programme of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals,” and to achieving zero barriers to contraception and reproductive health care, zero preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, zero gender-based violence, assault, and abuse, zero child marriages and zero cases of female genital mutilation.

Nairobi statement

Dr, Kanem said the Nairobi Statement, a transformative, agenda-setting framework, captures the commitments made by member states, and announced that UNFPA will create a new high level commission “to drive this agenda and our commitments forward.”

The commission, she stated, will propose ways to monitor progress on the commitments made at the summit while accounting for all existing global, regional, and national follow-up mechanisms.

Based on the commission’s recommendations, UNFPA will regularly report on the 12 global commitments embodied in the Nairobi Statement, Dr Kanem added.

“Together, we will work to make the next ten years, years of action and results for women and girls, in keeping with the decade of delivery on the Sustainable Development Goals.”

She thanked the governments of Kenya and Denmark for supporting the Summit and championing rights and choices for all.

She further thanked the governments of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Sweden, as well as the many private sector partners, for their additional financial support to the summit.

Young leaders

Dr Kanem commended young leaders and activists around the world, who, she said, were challenging governments to work harder to keep the promises made at the International Conference on population and Development in Cairo.