CPD: Costings Revised for Population Programs

Investments of $64.7 billion are needed in 2010 for population programmes essential to reduce poverty, promote development and curtail maternal death, a media statement from UNFPA said on 6 April.

According to a revision approved by United Nations members at the closing session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), one third of this sum (about $21.6 billion) is expected as international assistance, while the remaining two thirds would be domestic investments by developing nations.

The new figure of $64.7 billion is a major revision of the $20.5 billion (in 1993 United States dollars) for 2010 that was adopted at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). This is the first time in 15 years that the Cairo Programme of Action's cost estimates have been reviewed, as demanded by that global consensus.

A report of the United Nations Secretary-General says the revision was urgently needed due to the dramatic growth in current needs, with health-care costs skyrocketing and data collection costs rising, as many countries prepare for the 2010 round of censuses.

The $64.7 billion is broken into work categories adopted in Cairo. The total 2010 costs for sexual and reproductive health, which include family planning and maternal health, are estimated at $27.4 billion; $32.5 billion for HIV; and $4.8 billion for basic research, data collection and policy analysis. The figures change annually, rising from some $67.8 billion in 2011 to $69.8 billion in 2015.

The new estimates more accurately reflect current needs and are more in line with the investments required to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, the Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

The key agenda before the Commission was the contribution of the Cairo Programme to the MDGs. The world's developing countries made the case when they said on the opening day: "the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action is crucial for the eradication of extreme poverty."

Speaking as the Group of 77 and China, they added that the Cairo consensus: "has a direct impact on the ability to achieve the MDGs linked to health and social and economic outcomes in the areas of children, mothers, HIV/AIDS, gender, poverty and employment."