United Nations Country Team Viet Nam
Speech
by Ms. Mandeep K. O'Brien, UNFPA Representative a.i
Date:
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Event:
The State of World Population 2012 Media Session
Mr. Nguyen Viet Tien, Vice Minister of Health
Mr. Nguyen Van Tan, Deputy Director of GOPFP
Dr. Takeshi Kasai, WHO Representative in Viet Nam
Representatives from government organizations and the media,
Fellow UN colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of the United Nations in Viet Nam, I am very pleased to be here to launch
UNFPA’s flagship State of World Population 2012 report, entitled "By choice, not by
chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development". I would like to thank the
Ministry of Health and the General Office for Population and Family Planning for
participating in this media session today, and also a special thanks to Mr Nguyen Viet Tien
for his time and inspiring opening speech.
This year's report is released four months after a landmark Family Planning Summit in
London on 11 July 2012, which was the World Population Day. The London Summit
launched an unprecedented initiative to meet the need for modern family planning in
developing countries, which resulted in $4.6 billion commitments from donor and
developing countries in order to expand access to voluntary family planning for an
additional 120 million women in developing countries by 2020. The theme for the World
Population Day 2012 was universal access to reproductive health and this year's State of
World Population report focuses on one of the critical components of universal access to
reproductive health, that is family planning. It reaffirms the commitment of 179 countries,
including Viet Nam, to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD).
Before giving the floor to my colleague to present the key findings of this report, I would
like to reiterate a few key messages and call for actions highlighted in the report:
Firstly, voluntary family planning is a human right. However, one fourth or sexually
active women aged 15 to 49, that is 222 million women in developing countries face an
unmet need for family planning. There are many factors that contribute to this gap – limited
availability of services, affordability, lack of adequate information, socio-cultural barriers,
and a host of conditions in the lives of women and men that prevent them from accessing
sexual and reproductive health services. These barriers are limiting their rights. To ensure
that every person's right to family planning is realized, the report calls on governments and
leaders to raise the funds to invest fully in family planning.
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Secondly, family planning is a cost-effective health intervention, responsible for
reducing maternal deaths by 25 percent worldwide. It can reduce poverty, improve health,
promote gender equality, enable adolescents to finish school and increase labour force
participation. By investing $4.1 billion more in modern contraceptives, the world can save
$5.7 billion in maternal and newborn health services. Falling to meet the sexual and
reproductive health needs of young people in Malawi, for example, contributed to high
rates of unintended pregnancy and HIV.
Thirdly, family planning delivers immeasurable rewards to women, families and
communities around the world. By enabling individuals to choose the number and
spacing of their children, family planning has allowed women, and their children, to live
healthier, longer lives. Looking ahead, if an additional 120 million obtained access to family
planning, the report estimates that three million fewer babies would die in their first year of
life.
Fourthly, the right to family planning for all cannot be realized without taking
responsibility. Governments, civil society, service providers and communities must make
sure that voluntary family planning is available to all who want it, especially the poor and
vulnerable groups, when they want it and that services, supplies and information are of
high quality.
Lastly, money is just one part of the solution. Governments need to integrate voluntary
family planning into broader economic and social development initiatives. We need
to remove economic, social, legal and logistical obstacles to family planning; provide lifeskills training and age-appropriate sexuality education to young people; and create and
enforce laws that protect women’s rights. Importantly, we also need to engage men and
boys in family planning and in supporting the rights of women and girls.
Governments and leaders need to reinforce a rights-based approach to family
planning and to secure an emphasis on family planning in the global sustainable
development agenda that will follow when the current set of MDGs expire in 2015. Let me
conclude with a quote from the UNFPA Executive Director who recently remarked: "Family
planning is not a privilege, but a right. Yet, too many women—and men—are denied this
human right. The pledge we made in July in London to increase access to family planning
will improve the lives of millions and will each year help avert 200,000 maternal deaths. As
we approach the target date for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, I call on all
leaders to build on this momentum, close the funding gap, and make voluntary family
planning a development priority.”
And now I would like to recommend you to study this State of World Population Report
2012 and seek your assistance in disseminating the key messages of this report as widely
as possible. As media, you play a key role in getting the message out. Each and every
one of us can take action to promote family planning as a right.
Thank you very much for your attention and participation.
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