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On 11 July 2019, AFIDEP joined stakeholders in population to commemorate World Population Day 2019 in Kisayani High School in Kibwezi town, Makueni County. The commemoration was led by the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) – the host of the event and the focal government agency on matters relating to population and development policies and programmes in Kenya – and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Office – Kenya.
The theme of this year’s commemoration is fulfilling the commitments made 25 years ago at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt. While the Conference was a global milestone in reproductive health and rights, resulting in a revolutionary Programme of Action (PoA) that received the backing of 179 governments, the POA has yet to be realised in its entirety by national governments and the international community.
Specifically, the 1994 ICPD PoA called for all people to have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including access to family planning, safe pregnancy and child birth services, and the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.
In the lead up to the Nairobi Summit on ICPD 25 in November 2019, this year’s World Population Day theme – Accelerating the Promise – provides a call to mobilise the political will and financial commitments we urgently need to finally and fully implement the ICPD Programme of Action.
In this video, we interview Hon Adelina Mwau, the Deputy Governor -County Government of Makueni, and Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, the Director General, NCPD, for their take on the significance of this year’s World Population Day theme, the Nairobi Summit, the teen pregnancy menace in Kenya, and why this year’s commemoration was held in Makueni County.