Panel discussion chaired by Yvonne Bogaarts (Rutgers), including Lewis Emmerton (CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality), Robin Smeets (dance4life) and Evi van den Dungen (Rutgers)
On the 11th of April 2019, Share-Net Netherlands hosted a debriefing on the 52nd session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD). Share-Net members also tool a forward look into the International Conference on Population and Development @25 (ICPD) process, including the Nairobi Summit.
Lewis:
Right Here Right Now presented their Shadow Report at this year’s 52nd session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) in New York.
The Right Here Right Now programme works on advancing youth SRHR, empowering young people and holding governments accountable for their lack of policy or unresponsiveness with regards to young people and their needs and rights.
Marking the 25th anniversary of the ICPD Programme of Action, Right Here Right Now published their Shadow Report. The Shadow Report reflects on the achievements and positive results since Cairo and also highlights what has still to be done and improved upon. The Shadow Report aimed to document best practices, implementations and recommendations at both a national and international level and to challenge the status quo of young people not being experts on the challenges that affect them.
However, it is still uncertain how to take the recommendations made in the report beyond Nairobi and it is evident that there is still a long way to go for implementation. But a key point is that young people need to be the ones who shape the direction of further implementation.
Robin:
With regards to preparation for the CPD
There was very good preparation done at national and regional levels. They took 3 months to prepare for the event, including nominations. Only 2 countries had not prioritised the CPD.
However, despite the enthusiasm at national and regional levels, this was difficult to bring to an international level. There were significant challenges with visa applications. 2/3 (66%) of youth advocates could not come to the CPD. Only the participants who had existing visas for America could attend.
Evi:
The Political Declaration
The political declaration was signed on Monday with a lot of positive feelings and good reception. For the past three years, there has been no outcome and a lot of work and negotiation was required for an output document. This year there was a strong bureau and also The Jamaican chair pushed for negotiations to result in a positive outcome. Although the final draft declaration did not differ much from the zero draft, it is still considered a win.
Another positive result from CPD, within the coalition between like-minded states, there was a cross regional statement in which 50 states signed this statement. This is an improvement upon last year where a total of 30 countries signed. The Netherlands played an important role in the success of this.
The theme of next year’s CPD will revolve around nutrition and food security.
Following this, a question was raised about who the opposition is, how are they financed and the following points emerged:
The opposition varies in different regions but it is anyone who is anti-choice, anti-CSE, anti-LGBTQI+ etc. While anti-rights groups are generally a vocal minority, they are well financed often by fundamental Christian groups in North America and led by groups in South America and have an effect on national level by means of strong lobbying.
Opposition groups at international levels: Citizen Go presence at CSW. The chair of Kenya received death threats from anti-choice/anti-abortion lobby groups. There is a difficulty in creating a safe space but the UN responded strongly with safety and security for advocates. (Include article from Margriet van der Zouw)
Research conducted by IPAS has provided a mapping of the finance of opposition groups (Include IPAS mapping)
Opposition groups are gaining new traction. They are taking up more space and as a result, there is less space for progressive groups. It is important that we counter this traction and prevent them from occupying public space.
There is also a rising agenda for western countries regarding population reduction. We see countries wanting to stop migrants from entering. But population growth is inevitable and history has proved that preventing the flow of people does not reduce population; it results in bad policy. Countries should invest in female and youth empowerment and education.
It was further pointed out that the CPD was successful because there was no mention of specific words as “gender/ empowerment/ human rights”. But, it is important that we view both the CSW and CPD as victories.
The regional outcomes are the ones to celebrate most.
All the chairs of the regional processes were at CPD and the regional outcomes are all very progressive. The regional reports should be read, to remind ourselves of the reality. (Include regional documents)
Information and Sharing Session with Arthur Erken (Director Communications and Strategic Partnerships UNFPA)
The Nairobi Summit:
Nairobi will be about commitment and country and partner specific commitments should underlie the bigger commitments. Nairobi will hopefully give us a new agenda: at its minimum a global commitment for universal SRHR for everyone. There needs to be a focus on the factors that unite us (the coalition of the willing). Regional reviews are very important in facilitating this.
There are 5 themes and 5 accelerators for the Nairobi summit:
Themes: SRHR within USC, SRHR in humanity crisis situations, financing, demographic diversity and stable development, ending GBV and violence against women and girls.
Accelerators: empowerment and gender equality, youth leadership, community, innovation and data, and strategic leadership.
ICPD25 Video Content: UNFPA has developed this one-minute video to summarize the global significance and impact of the ICPD Programme of Action and its linkages to UNFPA’s three transformative results: ending unmet need for family planning; ending maternal death; and ending gender-based violence and all harmful practices. I encourage you to watch and share the video.
Engage with us online: #ICPD25 is the main hashtag for UNFPA’s social media efforts. The team here at UNFPA has also developed an “ICPD Explained” social media package, saved in this publicly accessible Google Drive Folder. The package contains a set of 10 cards that help explain what exactly ICPD was and why it’s still relevant today. You will also notice that the cards link to an accompanying web story (Spanish and French versions linked accordingly) that shows the ICPD in action in the field. We welcome you to make ample use of this web and social media content to support your communications and advocacy efforts around this year’s 25th anniversary of the ICPD and show the world why the promise of Cairo matters! I will shortly give you access to the folder.
Upcoming: Nairobi Summit newsletter for partners: The official Nairobi Summit newsletter is on its way. The bi-monthly newsletter is intended to share news and information from and for all partners on the road to Nairobi. If interested in being on the mailing list, kindly share the recipients’ emails.
A workshop after CPD will be organised to prepare for the Nairobi Summit in which the following was discussed by Robin:
Meaningful and diverse representation of young people (possibly 30%) at the Nairobi Summit.
The youth leadership working group, a recommendation of 50% leadership.
An interactive and engaging space that is facilitated and that has panels, again highlight on it being youth friendly.
A timely youth selection in order to obtain visas and the safety for LGBTQI+ young persons.
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