From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS: AFRICA: Accord seeks political support for population policies
Date: 13 Oct 92 03:57:09 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
Originator: barnhart@gagme

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: AFRICA: Accord seeks political support for population policies


new york, oct 5 (ips/jaya dayal) -- the u.n. population fund
(unfpa) and the organisation of african unity (oau) monday signed
a cooperation agreement which would seek to increase political
support for the integration of population policies into africa's
development schemes.

unfpa's executive director, nafis sadik, and the oau's
secretary-general, tanzania's salim ahmed salim, signed the
agreement at unfpa headquarters here.

sadik described the event as ''an historic occasion which
augurs well for a new era of collaboration between our
organisations''.

the agreement calls on the unfpa to provide financial and
technical support to the oau in its efforts to promote and
integrate population issues into the development plans of its 51
member-states.

in return, the oau is to ''provide political support to the
activities the unfpa is carrying out and intends to carry out in
africa'' towards the implementation of globally recognised
population plans.

salim told ips that among other things, this will enhance the
oau secretariat's capacity in dealing with population issues.

''the question of population is taken very seriously by the
continent...i think that through this concrete cooperation we'll
be able to achieve the required objectives,'' the secretary-
general added.

sadik said that the oau has always been ''quite helpful'' in
supporting population policy issues at both the government and
summit levels, and was ''quite pleased with the response of
african governments'' toward unfpa's population programmes.

while unfpa has long had ''informal'' collaboration with the
oau, the signing of monday's agreement will enable the regional
organisation to play an advocacy and catalytic role in promoting
population and development policies.

according to the unfpa, the oau may establish a population
commission made up of representatives from member-states' national
population departments. liaison between the u.n. agency and the
oau will take place in addis ababa, ethiopia.

among the other objectives of the agreement are the exchange of
population and development information and reciprocal
representation at relevant meetings or conferences. (more/ips)

africa: accord seeks political support for population policies(2-e)

africa: accord seeks (2)

the unfpa warns that the continent is facing a three-and-a-half
times increase of its current population of roughly 640 million
people in less than 60 years.

with some of the highest fertility rates in the world, a decade
of poor economic growth and a shared debt overhang of some 280
billion dollars, africa's need for financial and technical
assistance remains acute.

of a total of roughly 3,910 unfpa regional and country projects
implemented through the end of 1991, nearly one-third were held in
over 30 countries in africa.

according to the fund, the programmes most essential to the
continent include the expanding and improving of maternal and
child health-care services, better access to family planning, data
collection and analysis for up-to-date demographic  information,
and 'women-in-development' projects.

the agreement, which comes into effect monday, calls for
continuous cooperation between the two organisations until such
time as one party decides to revoke it. (end/ips/ip/jd/yjc/92)