Events and Activities

2009

The PGPD launched the UNFPA State of World Population Report 2009 on 18 November at Parliament House, Canberra. Senator Claire Moore, Chair of the PGPD hosted the event, and the Hon Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance launched the report with Mr Najib Assfi from UNFPA.

PGPD members attended numerous international meetings.

Establishment of Papua New Guinea Parliamentary Group on Population and Development

PNG Parliamentarians and Senator Moore

The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance, secretariat to the PGPD, has funding from UNFPA to establish Parliamentary Groups on Population and Development in Papua New Guinea and Timor Leste.

The meeting to formalize the PNG Parliamentary Group on Population and Development was held on 16 May 2009 at Loloata Island, just outside of Port Moresby. 14 parliamentarians attended. The Group adopted a constitution and work plan to take it to the end of 2009.

The Hon. Malakai Tabar MP was elected inaugural President and Hon. Dame Carol Kidu MP, Senior Vice President. Vice Presidents elected were: Hon. Posi Menai MP, Hon. Theo Zurenouc MP, Hon. Martin Aini MP, Hon. Boka Kondra MP. Vice Presidents were elected to represent regional and party diversity. The Group also elected a Secretary and Treasurer, Hon. Benjamin Mul MP, and Hon. Ken Fairweather MP as Patron.

The President, the Hon Malakai Tabar MP, Member for Gazelle said that teenage pregnancies, maternal death in childbirth and related complications and poverty were serious issues in his electorate and across the nation.

The Group has been the brain child of Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development.

Senator Claire Moore, Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development attended the meeting and explained the role and work of the Australian Group and the interface with other Groups in the region.

Parliamentarians also heard from Professor Glen Mola, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UPNG about population and development issues facing the country and were briefed on the ICPD Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals by UNFPA experts.

The meeting was funded by UNFPA and supported by ARHA, which is acting as the interim secretariat for the Group. In a follow up to the May 16 meeting, the Group organized for Professor Mola to brief over 40 parliamentarians and parliamentary staff on population and development issues facing PNG at a lunch on May 20 at Parliament House.

Power point presentations - ICPD and MDGs and Population and Development in PNG

Senator Moore at a Marie Stopes clinic while in PNG

Media and Advocacy training workshop for PNG PGPD

Members of the Papua New Guinea PGPD participated in a media and advocacy training workshop on Loloata Island, just outside of Port Moresby, on 28-29 November 2009. The workshop was facilitated by the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance (ARHA) and was supported by UNFPA PNG.

Sue Ahearn instructing participants on TV interviews

Participants were instructed on strategies for effectively using the media to deliver messages of population and development and sexual and reproductive health to their colleagues and to their communities.

Ruby Zarriga, Deputy Secretary Policy, National Planning and Monitoring Department being interviewed by Chris Greene

Hon. Francis Marus MP, Deputy Speaker being interviewed by Jane Singleton

ARHA has funding from UNFPA to establish Parliamentary Groups in PNG and Timor-Leste.

Work is also continuing to establish a PGPD in Timor-Leste, where there is a great need for sharing of information on population and development, and sexual and reproductive health. ARHA conducted a scoping visit to Dili in August 2009, and plans to return in early 2010 to work with parliamentarians to form a Group.

2008

The PGPD launched the UNFPA State of World Population 2008 Report on 12 November 2008 at Parliament House, Canberra. The Hon. Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance and a long-time member of the PGPD launched the Report with Mr Ian Howie, UNFPA Representative in Vietnam.

The report's theme is Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights

The PGPD launched the Framework for a National Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy for Australia on June 26. The Framework calls for a for a comprehensive and evidence-based national sexual and reproductive health strategy to improve the health of all in our community, both women and men. It is supported by the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance (ARHA), the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia (SH&FPA).

For more information - Background Paper and Call to Action

2007

Launch of the PGPD Rountable Report, Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Australian Aid Program – the Way Forward, in Parliament House on 30 May 2007

2006

PGPD Roundtable on Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the Australian Aid Program – the Way Forward
- 14 August and 11 September 2006

Launch of UNFPA State of the World Population 2006 A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration
- 6 September 2006

2005

Launch of UNFPA State of World Population 2005 - The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals (12 October 2005)