Sensoa International
  • Home
  • Wat we doen
  • Partners
  • Parlementaire groep
  • Nieuws
  • Page d'accueil
  • Ce que nous faisons
  • Partenaires
  • Groupe parlementaire
  • Actualité
  • Homepage
  • What we do
  • Our partners
  • All-party parliamentary group
  • News
  • Home
  • Wat we doen
  • Partners
  • Parlementaire groep
  • Nieuws
  • Page d'accueil
  • Ce que nous faisons
  • Partenaires
  • Groupe parlementaire
  • Actualité
  • Homepage
  • What we do
  • Our partners
  • All-party parliamentary group
  • News

25 years Cairo Programme of Action in Belgium’s parliament: the road ahead

25/11/2019

 
PictureICPD Debriefing in Belgium's Senate. UNFPA Brussels Director Sietske Steneker on the right.
Belgium’s all-party parliamentary group ‘Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda’ hosted a seminar on 25 years ICPD Programme of Action in the Belgian Senate, days after the ICPD Nairobi Summit of 12-14 November. 

Taking stock
UNFPA Brussels Director, Sietske Steneker, introduced the MPs to the successes as well as the unfinished business in realising the ICPD Programme of Action. In the past 25 years, maternal mortality dropped by 40%, adolescent birth rates by one third, early marriages by one fourth and more women had access to family planning. 
​
At the same time, progress has been slow and uneven. In Sub-Saharan Africa, maternal mortality remains an enormous challenge. Worldwide, only 50% of all women have the right to decide to use family planning. The barriers are multiple, including the out-of-pocket costs, the mentality of service providers, and, at the core of it all, the persistence of gender inequality. 

PictureMPs Goedele Liekens and Fourat Ben Chikha at the ICPD Nairobi Summit. Copyright EPF
Unprecedented show of support for the ICPD
Longstanding as well as new challenges were addressed at the Nairobi Summit, which brought together a total of 9,500 participants from all parts of the world, making it an unprecedented summit in support of the ICPD.

Belgian MPs energised by the voices of thousands of young people
Belgium’s MPs, Goedele Liekens and Fourat Ben Chikha, shared their experiences as delegates to the ICPD Nairobi Summit. They were energised by the new generation of young activists they met at the Summit. “Young people have a right to be heard and to have a seat at the table. Some were even standing on top of it!”, Senator Fourat Ben Chikha said. Goedele Liekens echoed Fourat Ben Chikha in his praise of youth activists and the mobilising spirit of the Summit. “The key to realising the SDGs is SRHR, to let girls decide for themselves. Once we start realising SRHR the rest will follow”, Goedele Liekens was quoted as saying, who continued “Yet, I don’t like to hear that women need to be ‘empowered’. Women do not need to be empowered. They are powerful, they have strength, but the problem is that their strength is constrained [by others]”. Both MPs also warned about the influence of an increasingly professional and well-funded opposition to SRHR, as well as the hypocrisy of some of the political leaders that took the stage.

Belgium’s commitment to the future implementation of the ICPD
Marie-Paule Duquesnoy of DGD debriefed the MPs on Belgium’s commitments for the future implementation of the ICPD, which include continued core support for UNFPA, the She Decides movement, UNICEF-UNFPA joint work on early marriages, SRHR projects and programmes in the partner countries and sexual violence response in the DRC.

Liana Hoornweg of ENABEL, Belgium’s implementing agency, introduced the new country programmes in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda and Senegal that will contribute to the implementation of the ICPD PoA. The programmes differ from country to country, with, in Benin a focus on awareness and behavioural change of young people and women, and the integration of SRH services in the health sector; in Burkina Faso a focus on family planning and economic empowerment of women; in Guinea-Bissau a programme on access to SRH services and Rwanda a cooperation on results-based financing that includes advancing SRH service-delivery in primary health care.

The Parliamentarians for the 2030 Agenda will follow-up on DGD’s and ENABEL’s efforts to accelerate the implementation of the ICPD. 


Comments are closed.

    Archive

    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016

    Categories

    All
    2030 Agenda
    Abortion
    Adolescents
    Afri
    Africa
    AIDS2018
    Alexander De Croo
    Amnesty Chair
    Amnesty International
    Antichoice
    Anti Gender
    Anti-gender
    Award
    Be Cause Health
    Be-cause Health
    Belgian Development Cooperation
    Belgiu
    Belgium
    Cervical Cancer
    Child Marriage
    Climate Change
    Comprehensive Sexuality Education
    Contraceptives
    Council Of Europe
    Countdown2030Europe
    Covid 19
    CPD
    CSE
    CSW
    Development Cooperation
    Discrimination
    Diversity
    Early Marriages
    EDCTP
    EDD
    Educaid
    Education
    Enabel
    EPF
    Equality
    E Tutorial Body&rights
    E-tutorial Body&rights
    European Development Days
    Event
    Family Planning
    Feminism
    Fistula
    Flag System
    FP2020
    FP2020 Summit
    Funding Gap
    Gender Action Plan
    Genderbased Violence
    Gender Equality
    Gender Norms
    Girls And Women
    Global Gag Rule
    Health
    HIV
    HIV/AIDS
    Hiv Prevention
    Hiv Treatment
    Hiv Vaccine
    HPV
    Humanitarian Crises
    Human Rights
    ICPD
    Infertility
    IPPF
    Key Populations
    LGBTI
    LSHTM
    Marleen Temmerman
    Maternal Health
    Maternal Morbidity
    Maternal Mortality
    Meryame Kitir
    Mexico City Policy
    Migration
    Minister De Croo
    Mozambique
    ODA
    Opposition
    Parliamentarians For The 2030 Agenda
    Parliamentary Delegation
    Perspective 2030
    Peter Piot
    Policy Note
    Population Growth
    Report
    Reproductive Rights
    Resolution
    RMNCH
    Rutgers
    SDG3
    SDG4
    SDG5
    SDGs
    Sensoa
    Sensoa Flagsystem
    Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights
    Sexual Health
    Sexuality
    Sexual Rights
    Sexual Violence
    SGBV
    She Decdes
    She Decides
    SRHR
    STI
    Stigma
    Sustainable Development
    SWOP
    Teenage Pregnancies
    The Philippines
    Trump
    UHC
    UNAIDS
    UNESCO
    UNFPA
    UNICEF
    Unplanned Pregnancies
    UNWOMEN
    Urbanization
    Voluntary National Review
    WAS 2017
    WHO
    Women And Girls
    Women's Rights
    Worlds AIDS Day
    Young People
    Youth
    Zanzu

    RSS Feed