High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health (MDG 5)

In October 2009, the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation and UNFPA organized a High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health (MDG 5), which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The purpose of the meeting was to give maternal health a more prominent place on the development agenda, as well as to increase the political and financial commitment to improve programme implementation at country level.

Several Youth Coalition members participated in the meeting and one of them, Imane Khachani (Morocco), was invited by UNFPA to give a speech. Imane’s speech called attention to the fact that adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by pregnancy and childbirth-related mortality and morbidity, and also highlighted four crucial needs: research, legal action, programmatic action and funding action.

A draft call to action was circulated amongst the meeting participants, and the Youth Coalition was invited to share our input. The final document, the Addis Call to Urgent Action for Maternal Health reflects our effort to include ‘youth participation’.

4th International Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of ICPD (IPCI)

In the two days following the High-Level Meeting on Maternal Health, the Fourth International Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of ICPD took place in Addis Ababa. A significant portion of the conference agenda was devoted to countries sharing the challenges they face in achieving the ICPD PoA. The conference also held roundtables on several issues including climate change, youth, and migration, among others.

A major outcome document, the Addis Ababa Statement of Commitment, was developed during the conference and asked that Parliamentarians pledge to carry out specific actions (listed in the statement) in order to complete the unfinished agenda of the ICPD Programme of Action, and to actively monitor the progress they make in doing so.

In the roundtable on youth issues, the draft Statement’s section on youth was shared with delegates. After examining the text, the Youth Coalition worked to lobby supportive State representatives to propose language on meaningful youth participation and sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, especially for young people.

You can download the YC's report, as well as the text of Imane’s speech, the Addis Call to Urgent Action for Maternal Health, and the Addis Ababa Statement of Commitment below: