Reflections on The Africa Regional Conference on Population & Development

Youth Pre-Conference
My arrival in Addis Ababa prompted me to realize how important each single contribution to developing a generation of hope and promise is. As a young person, I felt a heartwarming satisfaction to realize the extent to which African youth have broken the culture of silence that has enveloped the continent for some decades if not centuries.


I saw a global generation in Bali, Indonesia during the Global Youth Forum and I realized how far reaching the efforts of young people are and the support of organizations who believe that young persons regardless of their race, disability, religion, country, faith and gender are important shifters of global development paradigms.


I made the same observations at the youth pre-conference and I was particularly hopeful that African youth will produce a solid, forward-looking propositions and recommendations to African leaders and need I say it did not fall short of that. Energies from West Africa, East Africa, Central and Southern Africa synergized in vision and the outcome was strong and resounding just like the Global Youth Forum outcome.

You can refer to Tweets during the meeting here: #ICPDyouthAfrica



Civil Society Pre-Conference
Civil society in Africa in my opinion happens to be the strongest pillar supporting the African social, cultural, political and economic structures and without their active engagement in discourses of governance, civil rights, social justice and community empowerment, the continent might have been out of balance.


The International Planned Parenthood Federation leadership in the CSO pre-conference was evident of the key issues that CSO mobilized around - sexual and reproductive health and rights. One can never harness dividends from his country's demography if he does not address the sexual and reproductive rights of girls, young women and young people. Any attempt to control population and disregard the rights of people is a sure recipe for demographic chaos.


The African Civil Society statement on ICPD Beyond 2014 came out strong focusing on human security, environment and population mobility; inclusive economic transformation; and education and employment. Even though they recognized the work of African governments and development partners in making gains towards the realization of the commitments of the ICPD Programme of Action, they expressed their misgiving in the marked deficiencies in implementation contributing to the fact that Africa has realized the least progress in most ICPD and MDGs related indicators.




Africa Regional Conference on ICPD

The arrival of government delegates pointed to a week of agreements, disagreements, progressive language and oppositions. Initial discussions did not fall short of these. (Follow Tweets on the proceedings here: #ARCPD and #ICPDbeyond2014)


Africa cannot gamble with her future as well as her present. Ending violence and impunity against girl must not be a plan, it must be an action. Women must have control of their bodies and sexuality. Young people must have quality education and decent employment. Young girls are not wives, they are daughters we need to nurture and grow.


Persons with disability are not asexual, they are sexual beings and their reproductive needs must be met. Persons with other sexual orientations are human beings who have human rights and we must end the violence and impunity against them. Rural and urban poor are not mere numbers to capitalize on to win elections. They are a huge workforce we must tap into.
Africa can move... Africa is already moving.


Special Acknowledgement: International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC)

African Union Government delegates at the ECA Hall