The developing countries’ grouping Partners in Population and Development (PPD) has conducted the study with the support of UN population agency, UNFPA. It was disseminated in Dhaka on Monday.
The study also recommends monitoring mechanism for South-South Cooperation along with institutionalisation of such mechanism at national level.
UNFPA Country Representative Asa Torkelsson was present as chief guest at the dissemination chaired by the PPD Executive Director Adnene Ben Haj Aissa.
Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Ahsanul Aziz, PPD Director Programme Nazrul Islam and Bellal Hossain of Dhaka University also spoke at the panel.
The study focuses to understand the progress that has been achieved through South-South Cooperation since inception of ICPD in 1994.
The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development or ICPD in Cairo is focused on individual’s needs and rights rather than on achieving demographic targets.It mandates the UNFPA to work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, population issues, and gender equalities in countries like Bangladesh where policymakers are shy to speak about sexual and reproductive health.
South-South Cooperation is known as cooperation among the developing countries to improve their programme and policy utilising the knowledge and experiences from each other.
PPD is an inter-governmental organisation of 26 member countries headquartered in Dhaka since 1997.
The UNFPA Country Representative Torkelsson restated the significance of the year 2019, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the ICPD plan of action and 50th anniversary of UNFPA.
“It is a vital opportunity for us to commit to fulfilling the aims though reinforcing the monitoring and evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with key ICPD beyond 2014 outcomes,” she said.
Torkelsson concluded on a hopeful note that the findings of the survey and recommendations will be useful or accelerating the progress towards achievements of ICPD 25+ and Agenda 2030 (SDGs).
The PPD Executive DirectorAissa, based on different projections, said next 20 to 30 years will be crucial for Bangladesh in respect to growth in the population size, the working age population, the women population in reproductive age and the urban population.
Source: Bdnews24.