§ Chris McCaffertyTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the forthcoming Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific population and development meetings in(a) Santiago in March and (b) Puerto Rico in June. [157780]
Mr. Gareth ThomasThis year the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean will be holding a 10-year regional review of progress against the commitments made in the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 (ICPD). The process will consist of two parts: Firstly there will be a 803W technical open-ended meeting of an ad-hoc working group in Santiago, Chile in March. The outcome of this will be a report of key lessons and challenges in relation to further implementation of ICPD. Secondly there will be a high-level regular meeting of ECLAC in Puerto Rico in June, which will consider the outcome of Santiago.
The UK Government will be represented at both these meetings as members of ECLAC. We are keen to emphasise the importance of the ICPD commitments and to support countries that do not wish to weaken the consensus of ICPD. DFID is particularly concerned with maintaining wording on reproductive health, rights and sexual health and avoiding unproductive arguments about issues that have already been agreed. The emphasis of the two ECLAC meetings should be on monitoring of progress of the ICPD) commitments in the region and discussion around enhancing progress for the next 10 years.