ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The African Regional Conference on Population & Development opened on Monday, 30 September, with an intensive discussion of regional priorities fuelled by expert input from across the continent.
Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), welcomed the high-level government participation in the conference, which will be pivotal to the region's development.
“We are gratified to see the high level of government participation at this conference, which underscores the importance you attach to the ICPD beyond 2014 review,” he said.
Representatives of 52 nations attended the experts meeting, including experts in population and development, as well as representatives of government ministries, youth and civil society. The meeting aims to assist countries to share best practices, persistent challenges and emerging issues in the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which was held in Cairo in 1994.
By the end of the session a draft common position will be in place, which will set out an agenda for action to deliver sustainable development based on a rights-based approach to population – in particular, through the empowerment of women, girls and marginalized groups.
Mr. Hamdok said the ECA had been working jointly with the African Union and UNFPA to provide an intergovernmental platform to support the translation of the ICPD into a regional reality. Africa had seen steady economic and social development since 1994, he said.
“Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are African. In 2012, while global growth declined by 2.7 per cent due to the economic crisis, Africa bucked the trend and grew at a rate of 5 per cent,” he said. “Notably, all our sub-regions grew faster than the global average, with the highest rate being 6.3 per cent and the lowest one 3.5 per cent.”
