Partners in Creating the Future
Launch Ceremony of The Arab Council for Population and Development
Launch Ceremony of The Arab Council for Population and Development
Monday, 28 October 2019

Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal, Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Population Fund, The Higher Population Council of Jordan and the League of Arab States (LAS), in cooperation with The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The Arab Council for Population and Development was successfully launched.

The establishment of the Arab Council was a response to the Jordanian proposal during the eighteenth meeting of the heads of the Arab World's national population councils and committees, held in Jordan in 2017, and its statutes were adopted by the Council of Ministers of the League of Arab States at its recent regular session and the Economic and Social Council resolution of its last session.

The Council, aims to unite Arab efforts in supporting population and development issues, providing technical support to member States to keep up with international and regional development, and assist national population councils and committees in developing national population strategies commensurate with their national needs, and linking the population dimensions to the sustainable development.

In the launch ceremony, the Council contributed to playing a vital role in proposing solutions and making recommendations for the main development challenges facing the Arab region. The growing needs are to create jobs for young people, strengthen the human rights system, and achieve gender equality and women empowerment.

"As the Goodwill Ambassador of The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), I welcome the continuous with the League of Arab States and the Arab Council for Population and Development to advance the pivotal role that the Arab world can play today in meeting the regional challenges posed to it by conflicts, armed conflicts, instability and their devastating impact on different segments of the population," HRH Basama Bint Talal said.

Her Royal Highness referred to the UNFPA report, which confirmed that in recent decades the Arab region had witnessed, as a result of wars and unrest, the fastest increase in forced displacement, exacerbated by the risks and threats to women and girls.

Her Royal Highness  confirmed that any expansion of work on population issues should take into consideration the development efforts exerted by different groups at the local level, indicating Jordan's commitment to work with the Arab countries to make the Council succeed and achieve its goals.

Her Royal Highness also thanked the Arab League for supporting the establishment of this Council, working with governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, international partners, UN agencies and parliamentarians all over the Arab world to make it work and translate the needs of our region into reality.

In Jordan's speech, Secretary-General of the Higher Population Council, deputiziaj for the Council Minister of Planning and International Cooperation and Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Dr. Abla Amawi stressed the importance of establishing the Arab Council for Population and Development in the current difficult circumstances and challenges facing the region, It has become an impediment to the achievement of sustainable development and to the implementation, monitoring and utilization of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Dr. Amawi referred to the continued influence of regional crises on the Arab region's march toward development, as well as high unemployment rates, especially among youth, low quality of education outputs and their inappropriateness to the needs of the labor market, insufficient emphasis on reproductive rights and the adoption of a human rights perspective in providing reproductive health information and services to adolescents in particular. There is also the development disparity between regions, and the lack of comprehensive data and information on all aspects and issues of population and development.

In turn, the regional director of the United Nations Population Fund Dr. Louai Shabana confirmed that the Council represents an important start to reinforce the social agenda and the situation of the Arab human being in the center of development, moreover it reflects the interest and commitment of the countries of the Arab region to work in the issues of population, development and advancement. In addition to Assist States in the preparation and review of population programs and policies at the national level and their follow-up.

Shabana stressed the commitment of UNFPA to support the Arab region at the country level to complement legislation and laws together with  strengthen programs that help eliminate all forms of gender-based violence, protect and empower vulnerable groups, noting that UNFPA would work with the Arab Council and regional partners to support population and development issues and help them invest in young people, especially girls, provide them with appropriate educational and employment opportunities, along with helping them to care and protect the elderly.

The Arab League's Assistant Secretary-General, Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazala, said in the League's speech that the establishment of the Arab Council for Population and Development came within the framework of the League's interest in the importance of population issues and pushing the process of sustainable development in the Arab countries.

"The establishment of the Council, under the aegis of the Economic and Social Council of the League of Arab States, had taken place within the framework of the tireless efforts and work of the relevant national councils and committees in the Arab States over the past 25 years, in fulfillment of the objectives of the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population 1994 and the Cairo Declaration on Population and Development 2013.This underscores the centrality of population issues aimed at achieving the 2030 goals." Said Abu Ghazala.

The launch of the Arab Council for Population and Development came on the sidelines of the meeting of the first ordinary session of the Arab Council for Population and Development, which started today in Amman, with the participation of the presidents and members of Arab national councils and committees for population

The meeting aims at discussing the initial vision of the Arab Council's work and reviewing along with discussing the international commitments in the field of population and development in preparation for the International Conference on Population and Development "25 ICPD Accelerating the promise" / Nairobi summit to be held next month, introducing the summit in terms of goal, content, working mechanisms, representation levels of national delegations and coordination among the countries of the region.

The first regular session of the Arab Council will consider linking Arab priorities to the global framework through its consistency with international agendas and forums, plus coordinating Arab positions for the 53rd session of the Commission on Population and Development, to be held in April 2020, with its focus on "Population, food security, nutrition and sustainable development".

The Arab Council for Population and Development is one of the most important contributions of the Arab region to population issues, and its support was one of the most prominent messages of the Regional Conference on Population and Development: Five years after the Cairo Declaration of 2013, held in Beirut last year. Where it issued a series of communications in this area, which were submitted to the High-level political Forum in July 2019, after being submitted to the Commission on Population and Development at its 52nd session, held in April 2019.