Union Minister for Labour, Immigration and Population, U Thein Swe, attended the 25th World Population Day commemoration and Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The summit was also attended by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Danish Crown Princess Mery Eligabeth, national leaders and ministers from various countries, UN Deputy Secretary-General Ms Amina J Mohammed, UNFPA Executive Director Dr Natilia Kanam, and government officials, international organizations, and NGOs from more than 170 countries.

On the first day of the summit, the Union Minister met with UNFPA Deputy Executive Director (Programme) Mr Dereje Wordofa and discussed the success of the 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census undertaken with UNFPA’s collaboration, technical assistance in the 2019 Interim Census, implementation of an e-ID system in Myanmar, further assistance for the 2024 Census, and other areas of cooperation.

On the second day of the summit, Union Minister U Thein Swe took on the role of patron at the Health Work Force: The Dream Team for Sustainable Transformation Session. He discussed that Myanmar has actively participated in International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) since attending an ICPD in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994. He also discussed the pledges Myanmar has made concerning areas of healthcare.

The Nairobi Summit agreed on eliminating maternity deaths, prevention of planned parenting, gender based violence and harmful actions on women by the year 2030. A joint research made by UNFPA, John Hopkins University, Victoria University, the University of Washington and Avenir Health estimate that achieving this goal will require about US$264 billion.

Governments and non-government organizations made over 1,200 pledges at the summit, including a pledge of US$9 billion in aid. US$1 billion of that aid was pledged collectively from Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Britain and other nations of the world. The remaining US$8 billion of that aid was made by private organizations. — MNA
(Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)