U.N.F.P.A. observes World Population Day
Sunday was observed as World Population Day and number of activities are taking place this week to commemorate the occasion. This morning, Belize City Mayor David Fonseca was presented with a poster that signifies the progress that Belize and other countries have made in population issues. Present at the short ceremony were Jewel Quallo Rosberg, the United Nations Population Fund Liaison Officer in Belize and U.N.F.P.A. Assistant representative, Dr. Leith Dunn.
Jewel Quallo Rosberg, U.N.F.P.A. Liaison Officer, Belize
?It symbolizes that everywhere in the world people are celebrating and recognizing that the International Conference of Population and Development held in Cairo, commitments were made and its been ten years since those commitments were made. A lot of progress has been made and there are areas of gaps that we need to continue to fill. Now, there?s also an open project operating right now in Belize, which is helping in the area of providing services for adolescents between fifteen and twenty-four in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention. We are targeting children in especially difficult circumstances.?
Jacqueline Woods
?Dr. Dunn what are some of the key issues that remain so very much a concern to U.N.F.P.A.??
Dr. Leith Dunn, Assistant Representative, U.N.F.P.A.
?Yes, one is ensuring that health services are friendly to adolescents. For example when young men and young women need, those that are sexually active and we recognize that some of them are, they need to be able to access health services that would give them counselling about alternative choices that are there. It would advise them against getting pregnant without intending to and for also to plan their families, for nationals to plan their families so that you can then have a better chance of achieving the millennium development goals and the key millennium development goal in reducing poverty. So there is a relationship between sexually reproductive health and poverty and we need to ensure that our young population in particular, get?s it?s education and is able to plan their families rather than getting pregnant and falling into the poverty trap.?
U.N.F.P.A. has also been providing training to the staff of the Central Statistical Office, as well as conducted research in Belize on Aging and Migration.
