In 1994, a consensus was reached by 179 countries, including Australia, which committed to promoting the ICPD 20-year Programme of Action (PoA). The conference had a clear focus of empowering women and providing them with more choices.
The PoA calls for family planning to be made universally available by 2015, or sooner, and provides estimates of the levels of national resources and international assistance that will be neeeded.
The PoA includes goals in regard to education, especially for girls, and for the further reduction of infant, child and maternal mortality levels. It also addresses issues relating to population, the environment and consumption patterns; the family; internal and international migration; prevention and control of the HIV/AIDS pandemic; information, education and communication; and technology, research and development.
UNFPA - International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
2004 marked a significant year for the International Conference on Population and Development Program of Action (PoA). The PoA is a twenty-year plan with benchmarks and indicators of success.
In late 2004 the Prime Minister, John Howard reaffirmed the Cairo plan for human development. Further to this, the outcome document of the World Summit at the United Nations in September 2005 emphasised and stated the need for universal and equal access to reproductive health by 2015, which is in line with the goals of the ICPD. This goal will be incorporated into the existing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), goals that all nations of the world need to achieve to eliminate the most extreme forms of poverty. Developing nations have been making concerted efforts in the last five years to achieving the MDGs by 2015, and developed nations have been called on to provide aid, equivalent to 0.7% of their Gross National Incomes to assist in the realisation of these goals.
ARHA's core mission is to promote support within Australia and the region for these goals and principles, by directly promoting the ICPD and the broader issues and themes relevant to the ICPD Program of Action. This includes gaining support for ICPD activities within Australia's overseas aid program, producing information and education resources to support this work and undertaking awareness raising on issues of population, development and reproductive health.
On the domestic front ARHA monitors the Australian Government’s commitment to ICPD issues, raising awareness of these commitments and tracking progress towards meeting them. ARHA also has partnerships with similar organisations and works with them to further the goals and principles of the PoA.
Internationally ARHA works in partnership with regional alliances and networks, sharing information and working with global partners to advance the PoA. We are invited to present papers and attend international conferences and we use our ECOSOC status to input into UN meetings and resolutions.
