The key future actions respond equally to personal aspirations. As, again, the Secretary-General reminded us, many women, and many men too, cannot yet exercise the full range of their human rights, including the right to reproductive health. One of the achievements of ICPD was to recognize gender equity and equality as an aim of population policy, as well as a key to its success. The key future actions build on this recognition. And the key future actions respond to national development needs.
Experience shows that successful social development supports and energizes economic development.
Their successful implementation will carry us far along the road both to sustainability and to the sustained economic growth that all our countries desire. It has recommended setting new benchmarks in several of these areas, and urged strong action to meet ICPD goals in others. Excellencies, None of the recommendations you make here can be put into practice without the necessary resources. Alone among the international conference of the 1990s, ICPD attached costs to its recommendations, and included funding as part of the consensus. The developing countries are about two-thirds of the way to the agreed total.