Winter 2009

Welcome to the Australian Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (PGPD)
e-newsletter, providing updates on PGPD activities and the latest news on population and development and sexual and reproductive health.

Member News

25th Asian Parliamentarians Meeting on
Population and Development

In May 2009 PGPD Vice Chair, Dr Mal Washer MP, attended the 25th Asian Population and Development Association meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia. The theme was Achievements and Challenges of ICPD +15. Doctor Washer chaired and facilitated the drafting session for the meeting's final statement. 

May PGPD meeting

The PGPD met on 26 May 2009. They discussed the development of the PNG Parliamentary Group on Population and Development and planning for the remainder of the year. Two guests attended the meeting – Ms Josephine Teakeni, a women’s advocate from the Solomon Islands and the Hon. Eta Rory MP from the Vanuatu Parliament.

The two women were in Canberra participating in a Centre for Democratic Institutions course. Ms Rory is the only female parliamentarian in Vanuatu's 52 member Parliament. Ms Teakeni is part of a task force working on a special temporary measure to allocate seats for women in the Solomon Islands' Parliament, where there are currently no women parliamentarians.

Members

A current list of all federal and state PGPD members is available from the PGPD website.

New PGPD Publication

Prepared by the PGPD Secretariat with funding from the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development, this report provides an overview of Australian Parliamentarian’s actions in support of the International Conference on Population and Development Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals between 2006 and 2008.

A copy has been emailed to all PGPD members. To request a hard copy please email the secretariat.

ICPD Update

Every minute a woman dies in childbirth or from related complications – this shocking reality has not changed despite Australia and the majority of countries around the world committing to the ICPD Programme of Action and the Millennium Development Goals.

2009 is the 15th anniversary of the historic International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994. The ICPD 20 year Programme of Action was agreed to by 179 countries. The conference established an international consensus that placed individuals and human rights at the centre of population and development concerns and prioritised universal access to reproductive health.

Improving sexual and reproductive health around the world is dependant on countries fulfilling their obligations as signatories to the ICPD and MDGs. Currently, MDG 5 (improve maternal health) is the Goal that is least likely to be achieved.

The ICPD Programme of Action and the MDGs, particularly MDG 5, will not be realized without political commitment and adequately resourced, monitored and evaluated budgets for reproductive health.

The European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development, the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International have initiated a Global Parliamentarian Call to Action for ICPD +15.

Parliamentarians are encouraged to:

- Raise awareness of internationally agreed development goals, specifically the ICPD Programme of Action and the MDGs as they relate to SRHR,
- Table ‘Parliamentary Question’ in ICPD signatory countries around the world that will enable in-country advocates to press their governments for the above goal,
- Mark and celebrate the 15th anniversary of the ICPD with coordinated, international parliamentary advocacy,
- Strengthen links and relationships between national level Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) advocates and national parliamentarians.

Domestic News

Legal fears stops doctor prescribing abortion drug - ABC News, 3 June 2009

The first Australian doctor to prescribe the abortion drug RU-486 has stopped prescribing it because of fear of criminal prosecution.

A 19-year-old Cairns woman is facing up to 14 years in jail after she was charged with procuring an abortion.

International News

The Deadly Toll of Abortion by Amateurs - The New York Times, 1 June 2009

BEREGA, Tanzania — A handwritten ledger at the hospital tells a grim story. For the month of January, 17 of the 31 minor surgical procedures here were done to repair the results of “incomplete abortions.” A few may have been miscarriages, but most were botched operations by untrained, clumsy hands.

Maternal and newborn survival rates not improving, WHO - Reuters, 21 May 2009

Mothers and newborns are no more likely to survive today than two decades ago, with prospects worst in countries battling AIDS, conflict and poverty, the World Health Statistics 2009 report showed on Thursday.

"Maternal mortality is stuck at what it was in 1990," Ties Boerma, director of the Wolrd Health Orgnaisation's department of health statistics.

The report showed that most maternal deaths occur in Africa, where the maternal mortality ratio in 2005 was 900 per 100,000 live births compared to 400 per 100,000 globally. That is little changed since 1990...

PGPD Website

The PGPD website www.pgpd.asn.au contains information on members, PGPD's activities, reports and photos from conferences and meetings, resources on current population and development issues. A membership brochure for parliamentarians interested in joining PGPD can also be downloaded.

Establishment of Papua New Guinea Parliamentary Group on Population and Development

PNG Parliamentarians and Senator Moore

The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance (ARHA), 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. Fourteen parliamentarians attended. The Group adopted a constitution and work plan to take it to the end of the year.

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.

Senator Moore and Hon. Malakai Tabar MP, President PNG PGPD outside the PNG Parliament

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 Moore and Dame Carol Kidu at Port Moresby General Hospital

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 the University of PNG 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.

It is possible that the PNG PGPD may arrange a study tour to visit another parliamentary group, but the details are yet to be confirmed.

The support of the Australian PGPD will be vital to the future of the PNG Group and should any member be travelling to PNG the Secretariat would be delighted to make arrangements for them to meet with PNG PGPD members, however the trip would have to be self-funded.

Senator Moore at the Marie Stopes 8 Mile clinic, Port Moresby

Development Assistance in the 2009-10 Federal Budget

PGPD member and Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, the Hon. Bob McMullan MP, recently made a speech in the Australian Parliament about development assistance in the Federal budget.

To read the speech, click here

Mr McMullan visiting an AusAID funded clinic in Indonesia in May. The little boy had just been born the afternoon before, so his mother decided to call him Bobby.

Commission on Population and Development update

The 42nd session of the Commission on Population and Development in March 2009 adopted a resolution calling on governments to recognise the dire need to increase financial resources to achieve the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (PoA).

The UN Secretary-General has published a report on financing the PoA, inclduing revised cost estimates. The report stated that investments of $64.7 billion are needed in 2010 for population programmes that are essential to reduce poverty, promote development and curtail maternal death. 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.

For more information click here

Newsletters - UNFPA Global Population Policy Update

International Parliamentary Groups on Population and Development

Similar parliamentary groups to the PGPD exist in countries all over the world. Links to some of these can be found below.

APPG UK – The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health

AFPPD – Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development

IEPFPD – The Inter European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development

NZPPD – New Zealand Parliamentarians’ Group on Population and Development

IAPG - The Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development

FAAPPD - Forum of African and Arab Parliamentarians on Population and Development

PGPD Secretariat

The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance provides the secretariat to the PGPD.

Contact
Jane Singleton - Secretariat Chair
Alice Ruxton - Parliamentary and Communications Officer
02 6249 6566 or email
PO Box 41 Deakin West ACT 2600

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