Speech: Global Congress on Population, Health and Development: Healthy People for Sustainable Development
Global Congress on Population, Health and Development: Healthy People for Sustainable Development
Cairo, 8 September 2023
Remarks by Ambassador Christian Berger,
Head of the EU Delegation to Egypt
Distinguished participants of the Global Congress on Population, Health and Development,
Already three decades ago, in September 1994, Cairo hosted the largest intergovernmental conference on population and development ever held – the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
The ICPD represented a significant landmark in the history of population and development. It attracted the attention of the global community to ‘human lives rather than human numbers’.
Importantly, the ICPD affirmed that the empowerment of women and girls is crucial to ensuring the well-being and welfare for all and affirmed that the right to make informed decisions about sexual and reproductive health is fundamental.
The Programme of Action adopted in the 1994-ICPD provided a foundation for the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and many other initiatives that followed.
The world achieved noticeable progress in many areas, including but not limited to: noticeable declines in extreme poverty, lower levels of maternal and child mortality, and longer life expectancy.
Progress has not been even within and between countries. In many parts of the wold, there is still gender disparity and persistent challenges to persons living in vulnerable situations including those with disabilities, migrants, and women and girls in rural and informal settings.
Despite significant efforts to accelerate progress and address challenges, demographic trends as well as economic and social shifts have been affecting the capacities of many countries and key actors to fulfil their promises.
Additionally, while the Covid 19 pandemic and the geopolitical context contributed to tremendous challenges, they have fuelled our convictions that population and health issues have no borders.
To maintain the momentum on progress achieved and address evolving challenges, the global community needs to reflect and to work together.
Distinguished participants,
The European Union has been a global frontrunner supporting an accelerated progress in population, health, and sustainable development, within its borders and through its external action. I provide few examples:
1. The EU and its Member States are amongst the largest funders of global health and sustainable development in the world. The support provided to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic is only one example. Through ‘Team Europe’ supported initiatives, the ‘European Union and its Member States, and the European Financial Institutions’ support global health, population, and developmental priorities that are conducive to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Between 2021 and 2027, Team Europe initiatives are reaching €300 billion of investments for sustainable and high quality projects.
2. Anchored in the 2030 Agenda, the recently adopted EU Global Health Strategy aims at improving global health security and a better health for all in a changing world. The EU Global Health Strategy responds to an evolving and new global health order, with a strong need for innovative finance, pooling of resources, use of technologies, and co-investing with partner countries, EU Member States, European and International Financial Institutions, and the private sector to address interlinked priorities such as:
* Better health and well-being of people across the life course;
* Strengthened health systems and universal health coverage;
* Prevention and combating health threats, including pandemics.
3. Fully aligned with the 2030 Agenda, the EU Global Gateway is another example of how the EU translates commitments into actions. The Global Gateway is the EU’s contribution to narrowing the global investment gaps worldwide. This new strategy boosts smart, clean, and secure links and investments in digital, health, education, and research systems across the world.
For instance, total investments under the Global Gateway Africa – Europe Package accounts for EUR 150 billion.
In the framework of supporting global health, the Global Gateway contributes to strengthened healthcare capacities around the world and it facilitates investment in infrastructure and the regulatory environment for the local production of medicine and medical technologies.
4. At country level, in Egypt, the EU has forged a strategic partnership to support Egypt’s Vision 2030. The EU ongoing bilateral cooperation with Egypt accounts for around € 1.3 billion (in grants).
Support to Egypt’s population and development strategy, the health sector, and various interlinked aspects of sustainable development are important pillars of the EU-Egypt’s Partnership Priorities.
Egypt has been the largest beneficiary of the blending instrument in the Neighbourhood South with EUR 620 million in blending grants, leveraging approximately €7 billion in loans from European Financial Institutions combined with public and private sector financing. Numerous blending interventions support improved capacities and access to services that contribute to improved socioeconomic characteristics of the population and better quality of life.
EU partnerships in Egypt contribute to strengthened systems, infrastructures, and access to services, but they also provide important opportunities to invest in human capital and state of the art technologies.
The European Union has been a keen partner to Egypt in supporting its nationally owned Population Strategy. I seize this opportunity to congratulate the Government of Egypt for launching its National Strategy for Population and Development (2023-30) (our programme supported the process leading to the strategy). The ongoing and future EU support is €40 million.
I would like also to commend Egypt’s efforts towards investing in population and development priorities through flagship initiatives such as the National Project for Family Development, Decent Life (Hayah Kareema), and 100 million health.
A number of ongoing and future EU supported programmes contribute to these national flagships, and to Egypt’s priorities on population and development. Improving the quality of life, access to services including primary health care, education, and investing in human capital and governance systems are key objectives of the EU support to Hayah Kareema as well as to other programmes (EU Contribution to Hayah Kareema is €50 million, out of which €14 million to the health sector).
The latest phase of the EU Budget Support Health programme in Egypt (around €110 million) contributed to Egypt’s efforts to reform the Primary Health Care and to strengthening capacities in response to the Covid-19. The EU collaborated with Egypt to provide an immediate socio-economic response to Covid-19 to provide a cushion to those living in vulnerable situations, including women and children. EU investments were made possible to support developing capacities that sustain beyond the crisis.
An important priority to advance in the agenda of population and health is women’s empowerment and combating gender based violence. The EU supported a number of programmes that contribute women’s economic empowerment and participation including support to the National Initiative for Financial and Digital Inclusion (Tahweesha). EU programmes strengthened national capacities to address issues like violence against women and children, Female Genital Mutilation, and child marriage.
Let me conclude by highlighting some observations and recommendations:
Population dynamics, health, and sustainable development are highly interlinked and they require a holistic approach for addressing them, including their interplay with the social and economic context. Investing in health and population infrastructure, technology, human capital, and partnerships is a perquisite for meeting the commitments of the 2030 Agenda and for ensuring an appropriate response in difficult times, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic. Investing in human capital is crucial to ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of all efforts.
There is a strong need for achieving an accelerated progress towards gender equality. Closing the gender gap and empowering women in the health, population, and development sectors are key to fulfilling our promises in these sectors and for meeting the commitments on human rights and sustainable development. Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including family planning, is highly significant.
Supporting youth and children, especially through investments in quality education, health, and improved awareness, does not only provide them with many opportunities to enjoy their rights but it also ensures high returns on investment for any country.
Strengthening governance-based systems, particularly with regard to the capacities to collect and analyse data and to diagnose fiscal sustainability, is crucial to tracking progress, planning, and monitoring. These investments are also significant to ensuring effective accountability to the rights holders.
No single actor can fulfil its promises by working alone. The entire global community bears the responsibility to pool efforts and resources, while adopting the relevant differentiated approaches that suit the dynamics of population and health across countries, regions, and local communities.
Innovative finance, digitalisation, and Public Private Partnerships are needed to underpin an evolving health order and complex population dynamics.
I would like to extend a great appreciation to the Government of Egypt for hosting this important global event and thank all partners of the European Union, especially the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Health and Population, and other partners including the United Nations, particularly UNFPA in Egypt, for their excellent support to an EU-Egypt’s strategic partnership.
Let me thank you and wish you a productive final day of the conference.