Isolation and poverty foster violence, UN official says

The new director of the UNFPA meets Joseph Deiss (left) and Walter Fust (right) Keystone

The new director of the United Nations' Population Fund has used her first trip to Switzerland to urge the world's population to build a "global community" in response to the terror attacks in the United States. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said the debate about population should now go beyond numbers.

“When we talk about the population, the main thing we need to think about is not numbers,” Obaid told swissinfo.

“We need to think about people’s quality of life. Do they have services, can they plan their families, can they be protected from sexually transmitted diseases, can a woman be protected from violence, and can adolescents have information regarding reproductive health? This is population. It’s not just numbers of people.”

Obaid condemned the terror attacks in New York and Washington, which are believed to have killed some 6,000 people. Bridging the gap between rich and poor and increasing tolerance are central to her approach to the global population situation.

The lack of services and sense of dispossession has contributed to acts of terrorism or violence, Obaid said. It is the goal of the UNFPA to address these primarily development needs and not to restrict itself to keeping the population growth rate under control.

Obaid also noted that the “origin of this dreadful crime” lay in the changes brought about by globalisation and the technological revolution that has isolated many. The perpetrators of such acts of violence oftentimes feel “the long neglect of some basic human values,” she said.

“If we review the tragic events of September 11, we will find a fine line running through them – a sense of injustice, disenfranchisement and exclusion.”

Washington has named the Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, as its prime suspect. As a Muslim, Obaid said she felt it incumbent on her to foster better intercultural dialogue and build a united global community that was tolerant and inclusive.

“The tragic events of September 11 have brought to the surface that there are other cultures and we need to respect them. We must expand our hearts and minds and never forget that we all belong to this universe,” Obaid said.

Swiss aid UN work

Switzerland is the tenth biggest contributor to the UNFPA, donating SFr12 million each year. The head of the Swiss Development Agency, Walter Fust, stressed that Switzerland is committed to supporting their work as population issues such as migration and reproductive health are not just for the developing world to grapple with.

“Population issues have to be dealt with by all nations and societies,” Fust told swissinfo. Industrialised nations such as Switzerland are also dealing with issues such as reproductive health and how to stabilise a declining population rate through migration for example.

Managing the ebb and flow of the world’s population is one example of how countries need to cooperate on an international level, Fust added.

He joined Obaid and agreed on the importance of insuring that policies such as the new global alliance against terrorism or climate change do not hijack the agenda and push population issues to the margins of discussion.

This is of particular importance as the “Rio plus 10” conference on sustainable development and the environment, set to take place in Johannesburg next year, approaches.

One of the UN agency’s priorities is safeguarding the health of pregnant women and their children. Each day, hundreds of women die of pregnancy-related causes, Obaid noted. Each minute, 380 women in the world become pregnant. Half the pregnancies are unwanted, and about 100 end in abortion. About 40 per cent of those abortions are conducted unsafely. Also each minute, 11 people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.

Funding problems

Many industrialised countries, especially G7 nations, have failed to deliver on the financial pledges they made and increase official development assistance. This has placed a burden on smaller countries such as Switzerland, Fust said, which cannot compensate for the missing funds.

Fust recommends a new approach to development assistance that does not divert all resources to more topical issues such as the fight against HIV/Aids.

Obaid echoed the cry for more financial resources. The UNFPA has some 1,000 staff members worldwide and requires a budget of $400 million (SFr644 million). “Never before have they been needed more than they are today,” she said.

Richer countries made financial commitments to support such goals as the health of pregnant women, and Aids prevention in developing countries, but many of those promises were never kept, Obaid said.


by Samantha Tonkin