Fox guards hen house at UNFPA

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. | June 8, 2011

The US remarks at the UNFPA executive board meeting make me long for the days when at least one donor used these meetings to (at least attempt to) hold the executive director accountable for the lack of transparency, inordinate focus on advocacy for unwanted programs, and other management problems at UNFPA.

This year, the Obama administration’s remarks show that, at least for a few more years, the love fest amongst population control enthusiasts continues:

We are in agreement that reproductive health is an issue that cuts across much of our development work and is one of the most powerful investments we can make to improve the lives of women and their families. As the largest bi-lateral donor of reproductive and maternal health assistance, the United States has helped women and men in the developing world gain access to modern methods of family planning, allowing them to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children. Priority areas include contraceptive commodity security; improving access to family planning at the community level; integration of family planning, maternal and child health and HIV programs; promoting healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy; and cross-cutting areas such as gender equity.

Is reproductive health really “one of the most powerful investments we can make to improve the lives of women and their families”? Are not food, decent living conditions, primary health care, security and freedom from oppressive regimes not more powerful, and more central to US foreign policy? One wonders who outside the confines of the UN takes such a statement seriously.

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