International Development CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the UK APPG on Population, Development and Reproductive Health
Family Planning/SRHR/Population should be an integral part of the 2015 Development Goals.
1. Recent reviews of the MDG framework have highlighted strengths could be maintained in the post MDG framework. Indeed, the MDG framework has galvanized the world’s attention and efforts on major development issues. Well defined, measurable, manageable and focused goals have been quite attractive globally and have influenced global and national development policies, resource allocations and development accountability benchmarking. However, while significant progress has been made on a number of fronts, the remaining challenges are still daunting in order to achieve the future we want for all. Indeed, the same reviews have highlighted the critical importance of overarching guiding principles such as human rights, equality and sustainability, which were missing from the MDG framework.
2. Also missing were complementary and necessary policy areas such as a) inclusive economic growth (regarding employment, productivity and others), and b) a significantly greater and sustained investment in the social sector (education, health including reproductive health, water and sanitation and shelter). Indeed, investment in the social sector and in bridging growing and expanding structural social and economic disparities is both a process and an ultimate dividend of human and sustainable development. Within these two complementary policy and programme areas two intermediary goals become critical and indispensable: a) fighting inequality and bridging disparities, among and within countries, and b) supporting groups who happen to be at structural disadvantage particularly women, youth, female adolescents and marginalized and vulnerable groups (the bottom 20%).
3. It is in this context that population issues should be considered an integral part of the post-2015 development agenda at least from a two-pronged perspective: a) evolving population dynamics, including changing population structures, population movement and distribution, and the emergence of age groups with critical development needs, youth and the older people in particular, as they have tremendous bearing on macro social and economic development and sustainability processes and outcomes, and b) access to reproductive health and protection of reproductive rights, within a gender equality perspective as they represent a critical challenge for achieving a dignifying human development and well-being for all. While the first set of issues ie, population dynamics and changing demographic structures can be construed largely as cross-cutting, enabling factors for post-2015 development goals, the second set of issues ie, access to quality reproductive health services and protection of reproductive rights should be included in and monitored through clear development goal and target frameworks.
4. Such goals can and should be facilitated by “enablers” including i) achieving peace and security (at the global, regional and local level); ii) securing macro-economic and financial stability (primarily at the global level including access to markets and mutually beneficial trade terms, technology and so on); iii) committing to participatory and transparent governance at the national and sub-national level; and iv) committing to environmental sustainability (including strengthening cushioning and improving disaster management knowledge, technology, structures and practices).
September 2012