Rosy addresses Intl. Conference on Population and Development in NY

Saturday, 25 April 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

State Minister of Child Affairs Rosy Senanayake addressing the conference State Minister of Child Affairs Rosy Senanayake recently addressed the International Conference on Population and Development at the United Nations headquarters in New York, USA. At the conference, the State Minister pledged Sri Lanka’s ongoing commitment to the ICPD Program of Action which was developed 20 years ago to realise human rights in the process of development, to ensure that all persons benefit from their individual rights to freedom, dignity and social well-being. The ICPD Programfor Action brings representatives from around the world together to address the progress, emerging challenges and delivery of promises made 20 years ago at the first International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo which took place in 1994. At the first ICPD session, 179 governments agreed that the proper focus of population policy should be on the quality of people’s lives and not the quantity of people in the world. They committed to a sustainable development policy that would provide everyone, but especially women and girls, with environments in which they could make free and informed decisions about their lives and family formation. With the ICPD Programof Action they set out a 20-year plan to deliver on that vision. Sri Lanka’s progress and keychallenges Commenting on Sri Lanka’s progress, Senanayake stated: “Sri Lanka has enjoyed significant progress in its social and economic indicators. Additionally, Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in Asia that has a gender ratio which is favourable to women. In this context, Sri Lanka’s advancement in light of changing demographics will ultimately depend on its ability to enable women and young people to be active participants in the country’s development agenda. This requires an increase in sustained investment targeted at gender equality and social protection.” Highlighting key challenges that the country is facing in regard to development, she further added: “Women constitute a little more than half the population in Sri Lanka but only 34% of the labour force. Unemployment amongst women is more than twice as high as unemployment amongst men. In Sri Lanka, women migrant workers and women in the plantation and export processing sectors bring in significant foreign exchange earnings to the country. However, a majority of women who participate in the labour force do so in the informal sector. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse during their course of employment. “Women also bear primary responsibility for care work – which creates multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that limits the opportunities for their full integration into the workforce. The Government of Sri Lanka recognises that inclusive development rests on ensuring equality of opportunity in work. As such, we are firmly committed to making the necessary legal and structural investments to bolster a decent work agenda in marginalised sectors.” Women’s health in Sri Lanka Commenting on women’s health in Sri Lanka, she stated: “The availability and promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights; instituting robust mechanisms to prevent violence against women and girls; and strengthening measure to bring perpetrators of violence to justice, are critical in ensuring that Sri Lanka’s demographic dividend can be leveraged. “The introduction of family planning services by the Family Planning Association has been integrated well into maternal and child health services and this has helped to significantly reduce the stigma around contraception. Additionally the Government, through the Ministry of Child Affairs has introduced a scheme that provides pregnant mothers with monthly nutritional supplements to reduce the occurrence of anaemia, low birth weights and malnutrition which affect both mothers and their babies. “However, despite all our efforts, Sri Lanka still faces the problem of unsafe abortions as well as unintended and teenage pregnancies, which pose significant challenges to the health and wellbeing of women and adolescents. In this respect, strengthening comprehensive reproductive education through school curriculums can help young people access accurate information on gender, sexuality, sexually transmitted infections including HIV and increase their awareness on the effective use of contraception.” Challenges of post-war Sri Lanka Commenting on the challenges of post-war Sri Lanka, the State Minister said: “As Sri Lanka emerges from 30 years of conflict, challenges in conflict-affected areas still remain. Currently over 23.4% households are headed by women. To combat these demographic pressures, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka has set up a National Committee on Female-Headed Households and a National Centre for Female Headed Households – enablingwomen who are heading households to integrate into the workforce and access sustainable livelihoods.” The State Minister ended her address by highlighting that while Sri Lanka has made progress on its development indicators, its women are still lagging behind. She reiterated that enhancing the economic potential for women is critical to ensure the country’s development. She stated: “We need to create systems and attitudes where women have the opportunity to decide on the number and timing of their children, to control their reproductive choices, to go to work without the fear of violence or coercion, and aspire to equitable representation in decision making in the public domain. This is a task that we cannot hope to achieve alone. In overcoming development challenges, we invite civil society organisations, both local and international, to partner with us.” The ICPD Beyond 2014 Framework of Action provides a forward looking agenda for governments and communities, based on robust and comprehensive data gathered from governments, civil society, UN system and global partners that identifies what needs to be done to deliver a world of equality of opportunity and freedom to all of the seven billion people – and more – who share it.