By Sabine CessouPosted on 14-11-2019Modified the 14-11-2019 at 19:17

In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo changed the overall approach to birth control, placing women at the heart of development. Its second edition, 25 years later in Nairobi, saw African women taking center stage.

Generation time has passed since the 1994 Cairo ICPD, whose plan of action was strengthened a year later by the Declaration of the Beijing Conference on Women. The change that has taken place over a quarter century is obvious, at the Kenyatta International Conference Center. Africans of all ages and backgrounds have been ubiquitous at the Nairobi CIDP25, which gathered some 9,500 people from 170 countries from 12 to 14 November. An international conference of global scope, therefore, but which deals with issues that concern Africa in the first place.

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" What does a 10-year-old pregnant girl look like? Faith Mwangi-Powell, Kenyan director of the international NGO Girls Not Brides , told a panel on child marriage. " Is this what we want to see? Whether they are 10, 12 or 15 years old, it's a death sentence! In another session on the journey since 1994, 27-year-old Faith Opiyo, head of the Kenya Girls Guide Association , was loudly applauded when she said, " Culture in our country wants people to wear the condom and be in charge of the pleasure, and the woman of reproduction. Women must know how to say no, and take responsibility for the pleasure . ".

Change texts and behaviors

In phase, seniors in positions of responsibility held the same type of talk. " Young girls reject the term family planning; they do not want to plan a family, just do not want to get pregnant! ", Said Natalia Kanem, afrodescendante of Panama, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), organizer of the conference with the governments of Kenya and Denmark.

There has also been talk of "good practices" that need to be generalized, such as "husband schools" that aim to change behavior. Launched by the Women's Empowerment in the Sahel and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) program, funded since 2013 by the World Bank and led by UNFPA, these clubs where schools see male mentors train men, who make decisions about the health of women wives, on sexual and reproductive health. " Before the project was launched, 9 out of 10 women said they could not use modern contraception without the consent of their husbands," says Burkina Faso's Minister of Health Léonie Claudine Lougué Sorgho. This trend has reversed, demonstrating that change is possible . "

►To read also: Goal: zero early pregnancy

The road traveled since 1994

The ICPD25 was an opportunity to take stock of the progress made since 1994. Maternal mortality has decreased by 44% worldwide according to UNFPA. In the 30 countries where female genital mutilation is most prevalent, nearly half of girls had suffered in 1994, compared to less than one third today. In 1994, one third of young women in the world were married before the age of 18, compared to less than a quarter today.

In Kenya, maternal mortality has dropped by half in 25 years, from 698 to 362 deaths per 100,000 births, while the fertility rate has increased from 6.1 to 3.9 children per woman (compared with an African average of 4.4 children). " Despite this progress ," said Kenya's Secretary of State for Health, Sicily Kariuki, " women are still dying in childbirth. Early pregnancy and harmful practices continue. The question now arises in terms of quality of care. In Kenya, 20,000 lives are lost each year for this reason. "

The same observation prevails across the continent, even though family planning has " become the norm everywhere, including in the training of nurses and doctors, " notes Marleen Temmerman, a Belgian obstetrician and head of a Center of Excellence for Health. of women and children at the Aga Khan University in Nairobi. Mindsets do not change fast enough, however, to capture the "demographic dividend", as Japan did for example in 1961, as retirement savings helped finance infrastructure and economic growth.

What remains to be done

" We feel a more militant presence of women, says Mabingué Ngom, director of the regional office of UNFPA in West and Central Africa. The question of the demographic dividend has been at the heart of the statements made by African governments. We have agreed with the SDGs that we are not going to go in a scattered order : the stakes are linked. We can not separate health education from employment or empower women .

While the aging of the population in Japan and the negative fertility rate in Bulgaria were discussed, the conference did not address migration issues head-on. She remained focused on the three "zeros" on the UNFPA agenda - zero unmet need for contraception, zero possible maternal deaths to prevent, zero gender-based violence.

UNFPA has estimated, with the help of several US universities, $ 264 billion in financial requirements to achieve these goals - a little more than Egypt's annual GDP. The conference closed on November 14th with 1,200 concrete commitments and a $ 1 billion pledge from European governments, in addition to Canada and the European Commission. For its part, the private sector has announced 8 billion contributions by 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

" There will be no ICPD50 ", concluded the special envoy of Denmark, optimistic, while Mama Sampy, 17, Vice-President of the Children's Parliament of Mali, highlighted the paradoxical side of the situation. " A friend left school two months before the patent examination to be married. Another already has two children. These are the questions that interest us, we girls of Mali. In these circumstances, how can we talk about funding programs ? We must first keep the promises ! The texts in Mali allow the marriage of girls from 15 years old, in contradiction with the international conventions ". Mama Sampy belongs to a generation that wants not only to see her voice carry, but also to be followed by effects.

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