Monrovia, Liberia, Wednesday, May 8, 2024 – The Director General of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services, Richard Ngafuan wants more support and commitments from partners to support population activities in Liberia.
Mr. Ngafuan believes strong funding and support from regional, bilateral, and international partners will strengthen Liberia’s efforts geared towards the ICPD Program of Action.
He said with Liberia having very youthful population, such aid from partners will also enable the country to realize its demographic dividends.
The LISGIS Director General’s request was contained in a statement presented on behalf of Liberia at the 57th Session of the Commission on Population and Development held in New York recently.
The conference was intended to take stock of implementation of the Program of Action, under the ICPD and its contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Mr. Ngafuan recalled, “the Program of Action was adopted on September 13, 1994, by acclamation by all the conference delegations, recognizing the vital links between population and sustainable development, and the centrality of prioritizing sexual and reproductive health and the right of women and girls to make their own choices regarding their health and their lives.”
He then declared Liberia’s fullest commitment to implementing this global agenda and to fulfilling the 88 commitments from the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development, which was endorsed by African Heads of State in 2014, constituting their collective renewed commitment to the ICPD Agenda.
The Director General disclosed that Liberia has scored significant progress in the past ten years since the adoption of the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development in 2014 by African Heads of State.
“Liberia’s ten-year review of these commitments has revealed significant progress in areas such as improvement in school gender parity, childhood mortality, poverty reduction, maternal mortality, contraceptive prevalence rate, gender equality initiatives, addressing sexual and gender-based violence including child marriage, as well as creating general conducive legal and policy environment for sexual and reproductive health and rights and population program management,” DG Ngafuan added.
However, the country’s Chief Statistician told the gathering that despite the steady progress, several challenges persist.
He named the high maternal mortality; prevalence of harmful practices including FGM and early marriage and the need to pass the revised Public Health Law to increase access to SRHR for all groups.
He also named the negative effect of climate change and COVID-19; the need for investment to harness the youth bulge and realizing demographic dividend; and the need to improve the Civil Registration System, among others.
Considering these lingering challenges, Hon. Ngafuan stressed that the Program of Action is as relevant now as it was in 1994.
The LISGIS Director General then thanked the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and other partners for the support they have provided Liberia over the last three decades since the Program of Action was adopted in Cairo, EGYPT.