Statement by
Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Minister (Economic), Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations at the Annual Session 2018 of the Executive Board of UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS
UNFPA Segment
UN Headquarters, New York, 5 June, 2018
Thank Mr. President,
1. On behalf of Bangladesh delegation like convey our sincere appreciation to Ms. Natalia Khanem for her outstanding leadership as the Executive Director and updating us on the progress and direction of the organization this morning.
Mr. President,
2. Population is at the center of all development. We share the view that remarkable progress has been made through the ICPD Programme of Action to reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. This progress would contribute greatly to the implementation of the SDGs. Complex humanitarian crisis and adverse impacts of climate change is affecting large number of population across the world mainly in the least developed countries. Resource diversion to humanitarian emergencies from development activities challenging the potentials of LDCs to implement the ICPD, IPoAand SDGs. We want reversal of this trend in order to allow countries to give attention to their own population and ensuring their welfare.
Mr. President,
3. Bangladesh attaches great importance to the agenda of the UNFPA. Despite significant progress made the LDCs, much remains to be done to implement the ICPD agenda and we support UNFPA’s efforts to that direction. We reiterate that the work of the UNFPA along with the Member States, UN agencies, civil society and other stakeholders is key to protect and advance the ICPD agenda and to ensure its centrality in the implementation of the SDGs.
Mr. President,
4. We are concerned that the core resources of the UNDS is declining and work of the
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organizations like UNFPA is constrained by declining resources. We underline that the universal presence of UNFPA should not be compromised in the face of resource constraints. The Government of Bangladesh increased contributions in last two years.
Mr. President,
5. UNFPA has been an important development partner for Bangladesh since 1974 and contributed significantly towards our accomplishment in the population management including providing universal access to reproductive health, family planning services and building capacity to mainstream population programme as a pillar of the development process.
6. We gratefully acknowledge the support being provided by the UNFPA to our government and people along with other UN entities, international and national organization in addressing the humanitarian crisis due to the influx of more than 700000 forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals from Rakhine state into Bangladesh since August last year.
In the camps of Cox’s bazar. UNFPA is providing Sexual and Reproductive Health round the clock through deployment of midwives, mobile reproductive health camps, health kits, creation of women friendly spaces and clinical management of rape victims. Several preventive measures have also been initiated to minimize possible gender based violence in the camps where a large portion of the refugees are women and young girls. Our heartfelt thanks to the UNFPA delegation which recently (21-24 May, 2018) visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s bazar lead by the Executive Director Ms. Natalia Khanem to see the people living in the camps and expressed their solidarity with the people and government of Bangladesh in their endeavor to ease the immense sufferings of a large number of men, women and children living there.
Mr. President,
7. We assure UNFPA of our full cooperation in implementation of its Country programme in Bangladesh, strategic Plan 2018-2021 and to the programs undertaken in the camps at Cox’s bazar.
I thank you Mr. President
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