KENYA’S OPENING STATEMENTS DURING THE HIGH-LEVEL SIDE EVENT ON “ADVANCING THE ICPD25 COMMITMENTS”

Royal Danish Government,

Government of Republic of South Africa,

UNFPA, and

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Invited Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Kenya was among the countries that congregated in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 for the formulation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action that was adopted by member states of the United Nations. In rolling out the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, Kenya immediately embarked on a number of actions including the formulation and implementation of an explicit population policy that was known as the Sessional Paper Number 1 of 2000 on “National Population Policy for Sustainable Development”.

The implementation of the Sessional Paper Number 1 of 2000 on “National Population Policy for Sustainable Development” contributed to a tremendous improvement in population and development indicators between 1994 and 2012.

For instance, there was a remarkable increase in family planning uptake; Reduction in unmet need for family planning; Reduction in maternal, infant and Under 5 morbidity and mortality; Reduction in Total fertility rate; and an increase in educational attainment for both males and females.

However, despite these impressive improvements in population and development indicators, the country could not achieve the goals and targets set for ICPD Programme of Action by 2014. Consequently, on 22^nd September 2014 during the Special Session convened by UN General Assembly on the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) beyond 2014, Kenya was one of the UN member states which reaffirmed their commitment to the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action beyond 2014.

In an effort to accelerate the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, Kenya revised its population policy in 2012. This culminated in a new policy known as the Sessional Paper Number 3 of 2012 on “Population Policy for National Development”. The goal of this policy was to match the country’s population growth rate with available resources. Through this policy, Kenya was able to realize further progress in population and development indicators.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In November 2019, Kenya was privileged to co-host the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in conjunction with the Royal Danish Government and UNFPA. This Summit, which was attended by more than 8,300 delegates from 170 countries and territories, coincided with the 25^th anniversary of the Cairo Population Conference.

About 1,300 commitments to accelerate the implementation of ICPD Programme of Action were made during this Summit, out of which, Kenya made seventeen (17) Commitments.

Immediately after the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Kenya put in place measures to ensure that the seventeen ICPD25 Commitments are implemented and closely monitored. Toward this end, the country developed the “Action Plan for Implementation of the ICPD25 Kenya Country Commitments”. This action plan, which covers the period 2020 to 2030, includes the annual resources requirements as well as a monitoring and evaluation framework. So far Kenya has developed and disseminated three (3) progress reports on the implementation of the Country Commitments during the 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 financial years.

In 2022, the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) showed that Kenya had made further progress toward achieving the three (3) ICPD25 goals by 2030, namely; zero unmet need for contraception; zero preventable maternal deaths; and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation. Between 2014 and 2022, Kenya achieved the following;

Unmet need for contraception reduced from 18 to 14 percent
Teenage pregnancies reduced from 18 to 15 percent
Experience of physical violence in the last 12 months reduced from 20 to 16 percent for women and from 12 to 10 percent for men
Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation reduced from 21 to 15 percent.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Kenya is delighted to co-host this event together with the Royal Danish Government, Government of South Africa, UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood Federation. We look forward to sharing with you and learning from the experiences of others the implementation of the ICPD25 global and country commitments.

Thank you.