The Hindu : UNFPA pledges $75m aid to India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

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UNFPA pledges $75m aid to India

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI NOV. 16. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has pledged $ 75 million to India in its sixth country programme of which 75 per cent would be allocated to district level programmes and 25 per cent to national level programmes, the visiting UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Obdai, said here today.

There is a 25 per cent cut in the allocation compared to the fifth country programme as the UNFPA itself is facing a 13 per cent cut from the United States in its entire population programme. The UNFPA lost $ 34 million when the U.S. decided to pull out of the Cairo programme on population and development.

However, of the $ 100 million given to India, the utilisation during the last five-year country programme, which ends in December 2002, was 60 per cent. Even though the country would spend about $ 12.5 million during 2002, the remaining $ 40 million would lapse. "That was probably because the allocation was made two years into the five-year programme, the UNFPA representative in India and country director from Bhutan, Francois M. Farah, said.

Talking to mediapersons, she said the UNFPA was collaborating with the National Human Rights Commission to include reproductive rights in their plan of action. The UNFPA, in collaboration with other U.N. agencies, also supported the process of engendering the 10th Five-Year Plan to ensure that women's sexual and reproductive health and rights issues were integrated into the Plan documents.

She, however, denied that there was a sudden shift in funding from population to HIV/AIDS and said governments should integrate the two issues so that there was not a sudden shift. In its sixth programme for India, the UNFPA was designing a specific HIV/AIDS output along with interventions on reproductive track infection and sexually transmitted diseases.

The UNFPA-supported Integrated Women's Empowerment and Development Project in Haryana had provided opportunities for collective action by rural women through a process of community mobilisation. The project also provided for male participation to bring about the desired attitudinal changes in men towards women's empowerment and gender equity.

The UNFPA chief said the Indian Government had agreed to raise the fund allocation for NGOs from 10 to 15 per cent. She lauded India's National Population Policy, but cautioned against setting targets or disincentives as some States had done.

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