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The eighth annual World Population Day will be celebrated world-wide on 11 July 1994. Last year, activities marking the occasion took place in more than 110 countries. According to Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Secretary-General of ICPD, this year's celebration will help draw attention to the upcoming Cairo Conference and to its themes of "choices and responsibilities"--the basic right and responsibility of couples and individuals to make informed choices about child-bearing, and the responsibility of societies to help them in achieving their reproductive goals. To promote World Population Day, UNFPA's Information and External Relations Division has produced a colorful poster, a 15-minute video (available in English, French and Spanish) emphasizing maternal health, and a special pamphlet and a new edition of the Population Issues Briefing Kit (both in English, French, Spanish and Arabic). The kit outlines the major issues to be addressed at ICPD. UNFPA is also sponsoring a 5-15 July exhibit at UN headquarters, featuring photos and text from Material World: A Global Family Portrait, a book to be published in October. The book, by Peter Menzel, will document an extraordinary project in which 16 prominent photographers travelled to 30 countries to photograph typical families surrounded by all their possessions--in some cases a few jars and jugs, in others an abundance of electronic gadgetry., (full text)

WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA have produced a joint statement on training traditional birth attendants (TBAs), putting the issue of such training into the context of local conditions. It followed considerable debate on the issue. It says: "Because of the current shortage of professional midwives and institutional facilities to provide prenatal care and clean, safe deliveries as well as a variety of primary health care functions, WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA promote the training of TBAs in order to bridge the gap until there is access to acceptable, professional, modern health care services for all women and children." However, the statement goes on to point out the limitations of concentrating on TBA training alone. "Training of TBAs cannot be used as a single approach to improving maternal and child health care. Without implementation of appropriate technologies and strengthening of referral and support systems, TBA training alone cannot contribute to a substantial improvement in health care. Furthermore, trained TBAs cannot be expected to reduce overall mortality and morbidity rates when poverty, illiteracy, and discrimination--the underlying causes of these problems--are not addressed.", (full text)

After years of hesitancy, due to financial and manufacturing problems, the Chinese Government has finally moved to replace the steel ring IUD with the Copper T. The steel ring, used by some 60 million women, has been pronounced unreliable by the WHO and is blamed for some 30% of the country's 10 million annual abortions. It will no longer be manufactured. China has received financial and technical assistance from the UNFPA to establish 2 factories to produce the Copper T 220 and next year it will expand this capacity, as well as starting production of the Copper T 380-A. The introduction of the newer IUD is likely to prevent the following events during the next 10 years: 55,600 pregnancies, 18,400 live births, 35,600 induced abortions, 16.300 maternal deaths. 365,000 infant deaths, and 28,800 child deaths. The cheaper IUD was used by more than 40% of Chinese women using modern contraception, making it the country's most common contraceptive method., (full text)

A total of $330 million for international population assistance has been approved by the US House of Representatives in the foreign operations appropriations bill for fiscal 1993. The legislation, which includes $20 million for the UNFPA, is expected to be considered by the Senate in the late summer or early autumn. The bill stipulated that the amount earmarked for UNFPA must be used solely for the provision of FDA-approved contraceptives and related logistics. Other restrictions placed on the funds specify that; none of the funds may be used in the People's Republic of China; they must be placed in a separate account and not co-mingled with any other funds; they may not be use to carry out any program, project or activity disapproved by the US Ambassador to the UN; the full amount must be refunded if UNFPA provides more than $57 million for its 5-year family planning program in china that began in 1990 and for which funds already have been committed. Once the largest donor to UNFPA, the US government has not contributed to the Fund since 1985 after the Reagan Administration and antifamily planning forces in Congress lashed out against UNFPA for its support of the allegedly coercive Chinese national family planning program. 2 USAID probes were unable to trace UNFPA funds to the forced abortions the Chinese government program was charged with encouraging and carrying out. Nevertheless, after Congress approved the 1989 foreign operations bill with $15 million earmarked for UNFPA, President Bush vetoed the measure. In his veto message, the President said that UNFPA "participates in and strongly defends the program of a particular foreign government which relies heavily upon compulsory abortion." Pointing out that UNFPA has received no US assistance since 1985 "precisely because of its involvement in this coercive abortion policy," Bush said the 1989 bill represented "a radical and unwarranted change in policy." Although the President failed to name the country that "relies heavily upon compulsory abortion" congressional opponents of refunding UNFPA singled out China as that country. The Chinese government has repeatedly issued official denials that force or coercion are involved in its population policy or programs. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been pushing hard for Congress to grant most favored nation trade status to China, UNFPA is the largest multilateral agency providing population assistance to developing countries. But Dr. Nafis Sadik, executive director of the Fund, says that "requests for assistance from all regions have mounted to a level that can no longer be met by our organization." She pointed out that the demand for UNFPA support already exceeds the Fund's resources by $500 million. Additionally, she said, many countries--particularly in sub-Saharan Africa--want to expand their current population programs, and new requests are coming from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Baltic States, and Eastern Europe. More than 100 countries contribute to UNFPA, but most of the Fund's resources are derived from a handful of donors--Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Canada., (full text)