Welcome to the NZPPD information service, providing updates on NZPPD and other parliamentarian group activities, as well as the latest news on population and development.
Chair and Vice Chair attend Women Deliver conference
NZPPD’s Chair, Dr. Jackie Blue MP, and Vice Chair, Hon Steve Chadwick MP, attended the highly anticipated global conference, Women Deliver in Washington DC in June as part of a parliamentary delegation. The parliamentary delegation was organised by the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development as the lead partner in collaboration with the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, the Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development and the Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development. Dr. Jackie Blue MP was invited to attend a breakfast with members of the U.S. congress on the final day, and Hon. Steve Chadwick MP participated in the drafting committee of the parliamentarians’ statement. Among other things, the statement called for US$ 12 billion a year to be invested in women and girls. Read more about Women Deliver under International News below.
Chair and Vice Chair at G8 Parliamentarians’ Summit in Ottawa
Following the Women Deliver conference, Dr. Jackie Blue MP and Hon. Steve Chadwick MP flew to Ottawa to attend the 6th Annual Parliamentarians’ Summit on Balancing the Scales of Women’s Lives in the Countdown to 2015 as Chair and Vice Chair of NZPPD. The summit was organised by the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development and was funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the European Parliamentary Forum. The parliamentarians adopted a Parliamentary Appeal to G8 and G20 Heads of State and Government at the conclusion of the meeting. It included calling on "pooling new funding in a total of 24 billions under an international funding mechanism, specifically for MDG 5, which will provide targeted assistance for sexual and reproductive health and rights, family planning and access to safe abortion, when and where its legal and therapeutic abortion".
NZPPD hosts roundtable meeting to discuss Pacific health workforce
In May, NZPPD invited representatives from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the New Zealand College of Midwives, the Pacific Society for Reproductive Health, the Ministry of Health and the International Development Group within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to discuss how the Pacific maternal health workforce could be developed. The meeting was initiated by NZPPD to follow up on recommendations 8 and 9 from NZPPD’s report Making Maternal Health Matter. It was agreed at the meeting that there are essentially two urgent factors that need to be addressed – the number of midwives trained in the Pacific needs to drastically increase, and Pacific governments must prioritise investing more in the maternal health workforce. NZPPD will continue to work to help ensure these issues are addressed.
Director-General of Health presents NZPPD’s report to Pacific Health Ministers
In May, New Zealand’s Director-General of Health, Stephen McKernan, hosted a lunch for the Pacific Health Ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva and presented NZPPD’s report, Making Maternal Health Matter to the Ministers. This was an excellent opportunity to encourage discussion among Pacific Ministers about the need to invest more in maternal health and family planning services in their respective countries.
NZPPD at Asian Parliamentarians’ meeting in Laos
NZPPD member, Dr. Rajen Prasad MP, attended the 26th Asian Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Population and Development in Vientiane, Laos, on the 25th and 26th April. The theme of this year’s meeting was Population and Adaptation to Climate Change and was organised by the Asian Population and Development Association and hosted by the Lao Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. Dr. Prasad presented in a panel discussion at the meeting on Concrete Measures to Combat Climate Change, and was very active on the drafting committee for the meeting statement. The statement appealed to the leaders at this year’s G8 summit “to recognize that the poor – especially women and children – in developing countries, will suffer the most and first from climate change and have the least resources to deal with it. Universal access to reproductive health – including voluntary family planning – coupled with capacity-building and advancement, will aid their effort for climate change adaptation.”
New political party in the Solomon Islands is committed to addressing women’s issues
A group of women in the Solomon Islands have launched a new political party in their country ahead of this year’s elections. The Twelve Pillars to Peace and Prosperity Party was established to ensure issues important to women get on the political agenda. Men and young people are also involved in the party and the party expects to finalise candidates to stand in this year’s election by the end of the month. The elections are expected to take place in August.
Australian government pledges more funding to end violence against women
The Australian government announced in April that it will commit an additional Aus$300,000 to promote gender equality and reduce violence against women in the Pacific. The funds will go to the United Nations Development Fund for Women’s (UNIFEM) Pacific Fund, which supports community organisations working with women who have experienced violence and also provides small grants to organisations to implement programs to end violence against women. Violence against women is a widespread problem in the Pacific region with gender-based violence rates believed to be among the highest in the world.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Women Deliver
The second ever Women Deliver conference was held in June in Washington DC and attracted over 3,000 participants from 146 countries. The theme of the conference was ‘Delivering Solutions for Girls and Women’ with the aim to make maternal and reproductive health a global priority, and speakers included the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon, Melinda Gates and Helen Clark. A significant outcome of the conference was the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledging US$ 1.5 billion over the next five years for maternal and child health, family planning and nutrition in developing countries. In addition, the U.S. government’s new Global Health Initiative also offers hope for maternal health in developing countries, as the U.S. plans to invest US$ 63 billion over six years to help strengthen health systems, with a focus on improving maternal and child health through a woman-and-girl-centred approach.
The Pill turns 50
The month of May marked the 50th anniversary for one of the most effective and popular methods of contraception, the birth control pill. The pill was revolutionary when introduced, as it was the first method of contraception that gave women full control over their own fertility. Initially introduced solely for the purpose of preventing unwanted pregnancies, it has since proven to provide a range of health benefits to women, particularly reducing the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancers.
African Parliamentarians call for an end to female genital mutilation
Parliamentarians from all over Africa attended an inter-parliamentary conference in Dakar, Senegal, at the beginning of May to share lessons learned and discuss how to achieve a continent-wide ban on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Currently, 17 African countries have banned FGM/C; Senegal and Togo being some of the first to implement the ban. The parliamentarians also plan to encourage the UN to pass a General Assembly resolution calling for a global ban on FGM/C this year, and are confident it will be passed.
World Bank releases Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010 – 2015
In recognition of how vital family planning and reproductive health programmes are for the health and wellbeing of women in developing countries, the World Bank made public a new five year action plan to improve access to family planning services, contraceptives and maternal and child health services in developing countries. The Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010 – 2015 aims to improve maternal and child health in 58 developing countries by providing access to more contraceptives, more antenatal care services, education, and training more health workers.