During the ICPD25 (International Conference on Population and Development) convened last year in Nairobi, Kenya, countries renewed commitments to integrate population concerns into all economic and social activities, recognizing that reproductive health, women's empowerment and gender equality are the pathway to sustainable development. These commitments had been made 25 earlier in the first ICPD held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994.
One year after the Nairobi conference, a high level stakeholders meeting was convened at Kigali Convention Centre to present Rwanda’s ICPD25 commitments and highlight key activities, responsibilities and implementation strategies of those commitments.
“Like other countries, the Government of Rwanda committed to support universal access to sexual, reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health and specifically through six commitments to be presented today and focusing on health financing, legislation, service delivery model, education for services demand and governance for adequate policy making and accountability,” said Dr Daniel Ngamije the Minister of Health who officially opened the meeting.
Rwanda’s renewed commitments include but not limited to a 15%-increment of domestic budgetary allocation for health in line with the Abudja Declaration, putting in place necessary legislative, policy, and strategic frameworks which provide for all persons to have access to quality integrated health services. By 2030, Rwanda will have even improved further service delivery, access and uptake of health services in order to increase antenatal attendance, decrease maternal mortality ratio from 210 to 70 per 100,000 births and increase demand for Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health for all Rwandans through raising awareness, community engagement, education and by expanding network of health facilities that offer friendly services
UNFPA is one of the key partners of the Government of Rwanda in terms of family planning and reproductive health services. He commended the Government of Rwanda for having made teenage pregnancies a national concern and established a multi-sectorial approach to resolving it.
Minister Johnston Busingye and Attorney General who was present at the meeting, assured that an appropriate legal framework will continue to be elaborated and strengthened aiming at achieving ICPD commitments.