2 November 2018: Participants at the Arab Regional Conference on Population and Development focused on achievements and challenges as part of a five-year review of the 2013 Cairo Declaration as well as synergies with the 2030 Agenda. The Conference established the Arab Council for Population and Development to implement the Cairo Declaration and the results of regional reviews.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the UN Population Fund Arab States Regional Office (UNFPA-ASRO), and the League of Arab States (LAS) organized the Arab Regional Conference on Population and Development, as co-leaders of the mandated review process. The Conference convened from 30 October to 1 November 2018 at ESCWA headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. Findings will be consolidated in a regional review report, and will feed into the global 25-year review of International Conference on Population Development (ICPD), also marked in 2018.

In 2013, the Arab region’s 20-year review of the ICPD resulted in the adoption of the Cairo Declaration. The Declaration renews the commitment of Arab countries to the ICPD Programme of Action as an unfinished agenda on population and development. The Declaration identifies several priority areas for the region, including environmental sustainability, gender equality and women’s empowerment, international migration, internal displacement and large refugee movements and youth, sexual and reproductive health.

Participants noted decreases in maternal deaths in Lebanon, Morocco and Oman.

At the Conference in Beirut, participants discussed a draft regional report on implementation of the Cairo Declaration in the Arab world. Participants recognized progress on access to sexual and reproductive health services and reproductive rights in the region, and observed that maternal deaths have fallen in Lebanon, Morocco and Oman since 2013. Discussions showcased further progress on: Palestine’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); and healthcare providers’ commitment to continue to provide reproductive services to women and girls in Libya, Syria and Yemen, despite conflicts. Participants also discussed opportunities to enhance and mobilize means of implementation (MOI) and follow-up mechanisms to ensure that the next ICPD review can indicate tangible progress.

A session on synergies and interlinkages between the Cairo Declaration and the 2030 Agenda focused on the nexus of population and sustainable development, underscoring how population dynamics affect the prospects of sustainable development. UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem said the Cairo Declaration reaffirms a human-rights based sustainable development agenda, and the ICDP Programme of Action is central to achieving the SDGs. UNFPA-ASRO director Luay Shabaneh underscored the importance of regular reviews of the Cairo Declaration to ensure that the 2030 Agenda in the Arab region is people-centered, “especially in view of the population shifts, movements and changes” over the past few years. Shabaneh stressed the 2030 Agenda as the most comprehensive vision for ensuring that population policies rest on human rights, including the rights of people to make decisions about their own lives, especially on reproductive issues.

The Conference established the Arab Council for Population and Development, which will serve as an Arab umbrella to implement the Cairo Declaration and the results of regional reviews. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, LAS, said the Arab League Council will set appropriate principles and strategies for the work of national population committees and “institutionalize their action at the regional level to facilitate coordination between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the population agenda in the Arab region.” The Council is also working to establish regional population policies and track progress using a life cycle approach that includes all stages of life.

ESCWA Acting Executive Secretary Mounir Tabet noted that discussions on these issues will continue at forthcoming global forums, including the 2019 Arab Economic and Social Development summit. The Conference discussion and findings will be consolidated into a regional review report, as a contribution to the 25-year ICPD review. The report will also contribute to the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on Population and Development, the outcome of which will feed into to the July 2019 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). [ESCWA Press Release on Conference Closure] [ESCWA Press Release on Conference Opening] [ESCWA News Story on Conference Overview] [Conference Website]