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UNFPA Launches State of World Population 2002 Report

Tuesday 3 December

Improving reproductive health is key to reducing poverty and promoting economic growth, says the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State of World Population 2002 Report.

The report - People, Poverty and Possibilities: Making Development Work for the Poor - is being launched at Massey University in Palmerston North on Thursday 5 December, at an International Development Studies Network of Aotearoa New Zealand conference. It will coincide with launches in cities around the world this week including London, New York and Washington.

Aid Minister Marian Hobbs will participate in a panel discussion where panelists will draw on themes from the report, including the focus on poverty of resources, opportunities and choice.

Marian Hobbs said a key lever for sustainable development is to protect and strengthen women’s reproductive health and rights and to focus this work with women in poverty.

More than three billion people (half the world’s population) live on less than two dollars a day, and one billion live on less than one dollar a day.

"Urgent action is needed to combat poor reproductive health, illiteracy and discrimination against women," Marian Hobbs said. "The report shows that countries that invest in health, including reproductive health and family planning, and in education and women’s empowerment, register slower population growth and faster economic growth."

Inadequate efforts to provide reproductive health services and combat gender inequality result in continued high fertility among the poor, perpetuating poverty and inequality within households and nations.

Poverty is a problem in the Pacific, Marian Hobbs said, particularly in terms of education and healthcare, including reproductive health.

"In some Pacific states, 80 per cent of women are illiterate," the minister said. "And every year more than one thousand Pacific Island women die through pregnancy and childbirth related causes."

Marian Hobbs reiterated the government’s commitment to working with Pacific partner governments through official development assistance programmes.

The newly-formed New Zealand Agency for International Development/Nga Hoe Tuputupu-mai-tawhiti (NZAID) adopted a recommendation to focus its ODA programmes within the Pacific region.

UNFPA’s State of World Population report has been published annually since 1978. Each year, the report focuses on questions of current interest and concern for the future. The report is available online at www.unfpa.org.

For further enquiries please contact:

Dr Gill Greer, Executive Director, NZ Family Planning Association Phone: 04 384 4349

Jan Keir-Smith, Communications Co-ordinator Phone: 021 915 107

Did you know that every minute around the world...
•	one woman dies from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
•	10 teenage girls undergo an unsafe abortion.
•	13 infants under 12 months die
•	57 people catch an STI
•	11 people are infected with HIV
•	the population increases by 150 people

Family Planning Saves Lives.  Click here to find out more.   Click here for the latest headlines in International Family Planning, Population, Reproductive Health and the Environment.