IPCI – 6th Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the Programme of Action of the ICPD

I had the great opportunity to participate at the 6^th IPCI that took place in Sweden’s beautiful capital Stockholm from Wednesday, April 23^rd to Friday, April 25^th. It was an amazing experience to meet with and listen to many interesting people from all over the world. I was particularly impressed by the courageous work of female MPs from countries with difficult political and economic situations such as Afghanistan, Nepal, or Cameroon.

For the opening ceremony all 450 participants were invited to the Riksdag – the Swedish Parliament-   where the keynote speeches as well as a remarkable performance by Swedish artist and Human Rights Advocate Loreen took place. The meeting was topped with some royal glamour, too: Crown Princess Victoria showed her commitment to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) by attending the first hours of IPCI.

The two participating MPs from Germany, Ms. Michaela Engelmeier-Heite (SPD) and Mr. Georg Kippels (CDU), used this opportunity to exchange with colleagues from all over the world and to learn how other parliamentarians are implementing of the Cairo Programme of Action. This was an advantageous meeting as both MPs are newly elected to the German Bundestag and are keen members of its Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

I was personally very impressed by the exhibition “Too young to wed” that had a grand opening at Stockholm’s famous Photographic Museum in the context of IPCI. The shocking pictures of very young girls being forced to marry elderly men taken by Stephanie Sinclair left me with a big lump in my throat. It is just neither understandable nor acceptable that millions of girls still suffer from child marriage; that their rights are being trampled upon, that they have to become wives and mothers when they are still children themselves. In the words of Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA: “For those girls, child marriage is much more than a statistical problem. It’s a miserable, life-threatening, heartbreaking reality.”

The following two days were filled with great inputs, discussions and examples of best practices from different regions. At the end of the conference an impressive declaration was approved by the parliamentarians. The “Stockholm Statement of Commitment on the Implementation of ICPD Beyond 2014”  contains strong language with regards to SRHR. It also highlights the special needs of youth and makes strong links to the Post-2015-Agenda, i.e. by calling for standalone goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as well as a universal health goal including for universal health coverage.

Against the background of this progressive and promising commitment from MPs from all over the world, I found one topic discussed at the conference especially important: The need to strengthen the role of parliamentarians in development policies. Mr. Anders B. Johnson, Secretary General form the Inter-Parliamentary Union, pointed out that that many MPs often have “no clue” on what is going on in international processes such as the Post-2015 Agenda. Parliamentarians, as elected representatives of the people, need to have full access to information in order to be able to know what their governments are promoting for in international fora and to be able to hold them accountable. The World Bank representative pointed out that the finance ministers of low- and middle income countries very rarely ask for investments in human development. Instead of requesting money to invest in education and in accessible and good health services, the demand is on energy, infrastructure and telecommunication. MPs therefore have the important task to direct national budgets towards investments in human development and to also engage in the decision-making processes of their governments in the context of international negotiations.