Q&A: The Face of the Future is an Adolescent Girl

Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, says we have failed to protect our girls from early marriage, from gender-based violence and from early pregnancies. Courtesy: Livia Maurizi/UNFPABy Nqabomzi BikitshaJOHANNESBURG, Feb 28 2014 (IPS) “The future is today aged 10 and it’s an adolescent girl,” Kate Gilmore, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said in an interview with IPS in Johannesburg. Gilmore discussed the impact on African youth of the last two decades of action on sexual and reproductive health and equal access to education for girls, which are assessed in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014 Global Report. The report was released on Feb. 12, the anniversary of the 1994 ICPD, where 176 countries agreed on a 20-year Programme of Action, also known as the Cairo Consensus. This is a good opportunity to assess the gains and challenges of the ICPD, said Gilmore. Q: What has the global community achieved for young people in the last 20 years? A: One of the really groundbreaking outcomes of the ICPD was the commitment to sexual and reproductive health, making it a human rights project and not a population control project, not a project about controlling women’s fertility but a project about empowering women to be in charge of their bodies. It was a really cool shift that created transformation in public policy. The past 20 years has also seen 1,2 billi...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Countdown to ZERO Development & Aid Featured Gender Headlines Health Projects Women's Health HIV/AI Kate Gilmore United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Source Type: news