The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is pleased at the progress made by governments in implementing reforms in population policies after the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo.

“Considerable progress has been made in implementing key areas of the ICPD Programme of Action, ” according to one UNFPA official.

The cautious approval comes as delegates from 180 countries prepare to meet in The Hague, in the Netherlands Feb. 8-12 to review what steps have been taken on population since the Cairo conference.

UNFPA is especially upbeat about the “encouraging progress since 1994 in promoting reproductive rights and implementing reproductive health,” including not just family planning but the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS and the elimination of female genital mutilation.

Ever since 179 nations signed the ICPD Programme of Action at Cairo, most population statistics have shown progress in meeting the Programme’s goals, says a UNFPA rewview. “Globally, women are now having an average of 2.8 children, compared with 3.0 five years earlier.”

Infant and child mortality rates are declining, sparking a rise in average life expectancy at birth, which is projected to rise from an average of 64 between 1990 and 1995 to 66 between 1995 and the end of the millenium.

In general, countries have improved access to family planning and liberalised laws on abortion since the 1994 conference, during which time a majority of nations pushed for greater reproductive freedom despite objections from the Vatican and several conservative Catholic and Islamic governments.

For example, the Centre for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP), based in New York, says in a recent study that abortion laws have been liberalised in at least seven countries – Albania, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Germany, Guyana, Seychelles and South Africa – since the 1994 conference. By contrast, only two countries, Poland and El Salvador, have increased legal restrictions on abortion.

Similarly, the Centre says, one-quarter of the 28 African countries that were believed to have high rates of female genital mutilation have banned the practise since the Cairo conference. Many nations, including Egypt, are educating doctors and traditional birth attendants about the health dangers of the practise, which is regarded as a traditional form of circumcision in some cultures but can be life-threatening.

In general, the provision of contraceptive services worldwide has improved since 1994, with UNFPA arguing that “most developing countries with available trend data showed a substantial increase in contraceptive use”. About one quarter of all people in the developing world who need contraceptives still lack them, however, with the highest level of unmet need (29 percent) occurring in Africa, the agency adds.

More work needs to be done than simply to provide contraceptives, some population rights advocates argue. “Women’s reproductive rights are more than access to family planning and demographics,” says Anika Rahman, director of the CRLP’s international programme. “Empowering women to make reproductive decisions requires profound social, economic and cultural change — providing only contraceptives is insufficient.”

Even here, UNFPA has seen signs of progress over the past five years. It cited Latin American countries for making “major progress in changing discriminatory laws or in enacting laws that protect women”. Bolivia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Pnama have all enacted laws making violence against women a serious crime, the review notes.

Similarly, laws protecting women from sexual harassment and violence have been passed in China, the Philippines, Vietnam and the 14 countries of the South African Development Community.

Despite such hopeful findings, a number of major concerns loom as the Hague meetings begin, notably the cost of funding the commitments of the ICPD Programme of Action, which is estimated at some 17 billion dollars a year by 2000.

Although the ICPD formula estimates the need for some 5.7 billion dollars of international assistance to population programmes by next year, the current level of international assistance is only about two billion dollars, or a third of the needed level.

Many countries – including the United States, which decreased funding for overseas population programmes by 35 percent in 1996 – have cut their international assistance in recent years. But some UN officials are hopeful that the upcoming meetings – which feature such prominent first ladies as Hillary Rodham Clinton of the United States, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of Ghana and Elizabeth Aguirre de Calderon Sol of El Salvador – will underscore the importance of funding such programmes anew.

In one welcome sign for UNFPA, the prospect of fireworks between the Vatican and its critics seems to have ebbed before the talks at The Hague. The UN General Assembly noted in a resolution last year that there will be no renegotiation of the ICPD agreements, heading off for now any fight by conservative Catholic states for adopting restrictive language on family planning.

Nevertheless, two U.S. groups, the Park Ridge Centre and Catholics for a Free Choice, joined forces last month to publish a statement signed by representatives of various religions that asserts, “Eradication of male dominance is imperative for the sanctity of all creation.”

“The views of Catholics in the pews differ greatly from those of the Catholic Church hierarchy on issues like reproductive health,” says Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice. She argues that it is vital for representatives of different religions to add their voices at conferences on population, so that the pro-natalist views of the Holy See do not predominate.