International Planned Parenthood Federation Rises In Influence

By Austin Ruse | January 10, 1998

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Promoted to “Apex” of UN Hierarchy Reports from within the United Nations continue to indicate that NGOs are growing steadily stronger in range, scope and influence.

Last summer in Geneva the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) seriously considered granting quasi-governmental status to NGOs. And it is widely understood that the downsizing reform package introduced by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last summer will only increase NGO power.

But it was an event more than a year ago that most clearly laid out the plan for the expansion of NGO influence. In the fall of 1996, a new term was invented to highlight the importance of one favored NGO. Speaking before the Executive Board of United Nations Development Program (UNDP)/United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, UNFPA’s Executive Director, suggested that the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) be designated an “apex NGO.”

Webster’s Dictionary defines an apex as “the highest point, the peak.” IPPF is the largest NGO in the field of what they is termed “family planning” and “reproductive health” by the UN. Both terms, by official UN definition, include providing access to abortion and artificial contraception.

In a joint letter issued a year ago to IPPF collaborators around the world and to UNFPA’s country directors, Sadik and IPPF’s Secretary-General Ingar Brueggemann enclosed a 15 point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) encapsulating months of negotiations that have made IPPF an “apex NGO.” The letter says, “the cooperation between IPPF and UNFPA is of long standing at both the national and international level. This cooperation is now particularly crucial since the objectives of our two organizations in the area of reproductive health…are converging more than ever.”

The stated goal of the MOU is to foster greater cooperation between governments, NGOs and financial donors. Further, the MOU assists the international implementation of the recommendations from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The final point in the MOU promises to make a joint assessment of the progress of the new formal arrangement sometime this year.

It has long been recognized that there is a hierarchy among NGOs working within the UN system. There are three levels within ECOSOC alone, for example. And some NGOs, like the Red Cross, have long performed the heavy-lifting of UN humanitarian aid around the world. But this new term “apex NGO” markedly expands the notion that some NGOs are more equal than others. The fact that it has been assigned to such an ideological organization raises profound concern among people of faith around the world.

Correction: The Hague is not in Belgium as stated in the last Friday Fax. It is in the Netherlands.

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter