Experts call for including Cairo recommendations in post-2015 agenda

CAIRO — The Arab Women’s Coalition Consultation meeting has recommended including the findings and key messages of the International Cairo Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014 Review as part of the international post-2015 development agenda.

At a meeting organised last week in Cairo by the UNFPA and the Centre of Arab Woman for Training and Research, representatives of the coalition, youth organisations and media personnel said pushing for including these findings should be lobbied for before the meeting of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD).

The CPD will hold its 47th session in New York on April 7, and it will come up with an index report that will be submitted to the UN General Assembly for discussion in September this year.

UNFPA Arab States Regional Director Mohammed Abdul Ahad said the findings of the review are still priorities for the countries of the region and should be included in the next development agenda.

Noting that these findings do not contradict post-2015 priorities, the UN officials called on representatives of women coalitions and youth organisations to work with their governments to lobby for including them as part of the agenda.

These findings and priorities according to Abdul Ahad include gender equality, right to access reproductive and sexual health, and investment in youths and adolescents to achieve sustainable development.

In an interview with The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the meeting, Abdul Ahad said there should be more work on these priorities. 

He explained that although women took to the streets to call for change in some of the “Arab Spring” countries, there was a setback in realising their rights after the revolutions.

Shahrazad Abdul Wahab, a representative of Women Rights Organisation in Iraq, agreed with Abdul Ahad.

She said a draft law in her country is being studied, where the minimum age of marriage is proposed to be reduced to nine years for girls and 15 years for boys.

Criticising the bill, Abdul Wahab called for international interference to prevent such laws from being enacted. 

Youth empowerment also remains a priority after the Arab Spring according to Ahmad Abdennadher, an expert in population and development issues.

Abdennadher, who is based in Tunisia, told participants in the Cairo meeting that unemployment among Arab youths increased after the revolutions.

The ICPD Beyond 2014 Review is an opportunity to influence the future of global population and development policy at national, regional and global levels, according to the UNFPA website.

“It provides a once in a generation chance to define what needs to be done to deliver a more equal, more sustainable world for the seven billion people — and more — who share it.”

The review identifies progress and achievements towards the goals set out in the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, when 179 governments committed to a 20-year programme of action to deliver human rights based development.