PARAGUAY: UNPFA Supports Meeting On Land Management
La Nacion reported on 18 February on the presentation of a model of local development planning and land to population approach at the Musa Hotel located at Curupayty and General Diaz, in the city of Villarrica. The aim is to work with the municipality to prepare a development plan and a land use plan. The advice to be provided to municipalities will be led by experts from the Externado University of Colombia with the staff of the Technical Secretariat of Planning, and the Environment Secretariat with the support of UNFPA, the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) and the Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID). Read in Spanish: La Nacion
MEXICO: Youth Policy and Governance Meeting Held
Multiple media outlets reported on 14-18 February on a meeting to generate public policies and programming to support young people. The meeting was co-organized by the National Network of Youth and Young World Consortium and UNFPA and was attended by an estimated 3,500 participants under the age of 30. Read in Spanish: El Universal, Diario Critico, Vanguardia, La Razon and Publimetro
BRAZIL: UN Wants More Investments for Elderly People
Correio do Brasil newspaper and Cuidar de Idosos website reported on 18 February that UNFPA and the Government of Finland promoted, in New York, a debate about the needs of the senior population. Experts on ageing have asked for more commitment by the governments and the international community regarding the care of persons aged 60 years or more. In the 1980s, the world had 378 million people in this age group. Today, seniors represent 759 million. By UN estimates, this figure will go up to 2 billion by 2050. Brazilian specialist in geriatrics Márcio Borges, said the phenomenon of aging in Brazil is still recent, but is definitive. In 1990, Brazil had about 7 million elderly people; last year, according to IBGE (the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), there were already 21 million elderly people, or almost 11 per cent of the population. Read in Portuguese: Correio do Brasil
MOZAMBIQUE: Culture Included in Sexual Health Programmes
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo) reported on 18 February that UNFPA and UNESCO, in partnership with the Mozambican Government, are working to integrate cultural questions into sexual and reproductive health programmes. Field work was carried out in Ribaue and Mossuril districts (also in Nampula), in Nhamatanda (in Sofala province) and Zavala (in Inhambane), which resulted in a study on "Cultural and Community Practices in Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health." Based on the results of this study, the first pilot exercises in sexual health were launched in Mossuril and Zavala in 2010. Read: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: UNFPA and Women’s Affairs Ministry to Foster Gender Policy and Gender Parity Bill
Les Depeches de Brazzaville, Top TV, Tele-Congo, DRTV and Radio-Congo reported on 17-18 February on the signing of a cooperation agreement between Women's Affairs Minister Jeanne Leckoumba Loumeto Pombo and UNFPA Representative David Lawson to enhance cooperation on the status of women, including the implementation of the Gender Policy and soon-to-be-adopted Gender Parity Bill. Work will continue on early pregnancy prevention and support, male leadership initiative for women's rights, gender-based budgeting, fighting gender discrimination and gender-based violence. Mr.Lawson said, “2010 was an extraordinary year for Congolese women, with highest political commitment to free Caesarean section and a gender parity bill. The Women's Affairs Minister has gathered the largest ever political and social mobilization on gender issues in Congo. UNFPA and the UN will continue to support these positive strives." Read in French: Les Depeches de Brazzaville
CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: UNFPA and Government Sign Agreement to Support Youth
Top TV and DRTV reported on 18 February on a cooperation agreement signed by Civic Education and Youth Minister, Zacharie Kimpouni, and UNFPA Representative David Lawson to support, among others, behaviour change among young people on gender, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health, as well as the newly established Youth National Council, and campaign for civic behaviour. Minister Kimpouni saluted the excellent cooperation between the government of Congo and UNFPA and, with his Ministry in particular, underlining the impact of the campaign on civic behaviour among young people supported by UNFPA in 2010. Mr. Lawson said, "Young people account for the vast majority of the population in Congo. UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin has set out as one of his priorities the support to young people, as they constitute the future of Africa. We will thus strengthen to support the leadership and action plan of Minister Kimpouni towards young people."
GLOBAL: Remittances Boost Developing Economies
The Himalayan Times (Nepal) and Accra Daily Mail reported on 17 and 18 February that money sent home by economic migrants working in foreign countries exceeded $300 billion in 2010. This vast and growing tide of income needs to be safeguarded and channeled so that it does the most good for families and economies in the world’s poor nations, experts said at a two-day UNCTAD meeting titled “Maximising the development impact of remittances” on 14–15 February. Purnima Mane, Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA, said that women now outnumber men among economic migrants in the wealthy nations of Western Europe and North America. Although they tend to earn lower wages than their male counterparts, evidence indicates that they sent a higher proportion of their incomes home, and that they sent this money more dependably and more often. “Often they are the only contributors to family income,” she said, adding that there has been too little analysis of the relation between gender and remittances. Because of the frequency of these financial transfers, women migrants – and their children back home – are especially hurt by high transaction costs, she remarked. Read: The Himalayan Times and Accra Daily Mail
GLOBAL: Health Care For Urban Poor Falls Through The Gap
The Lancet (UK) reported on 18 February that the slums of Mumbai and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro are images of urban poverty so extreme that they are indelibly stamped on the identity of those cities. But urban poverty now goes far beyond these notorious icons.The world is becoming more urbanized overall. 2008 was a demographic turning point—for the first time, according to UNFPA, more people lived in urban areas than in rural ones. Yet these new urbanites, especially in developing countries, are overwhelming cities that were never designed to have so many inhabitants, and therefore simply do not have the infrastructure to cope. Read: The Lancet