Date: 05/03/2007

Source: Department of Social Development

Title: Benjamin: Research and Policy Dialogue for Action Conference

Opening address by Dr J Benjamin, Deputy Minister of Social Development at the Population and Development in Africa Research and Policy Dialogue for Action Conference


Member of the Executive Council for Social Development in the North West province, Ms Nikiwe Manqo
Executive Mayor of Mafikeng, Ms Mosa Sejosengoe
Director of the Africa division of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ms Fama Hane-Ba
Director of Population, Department of Social Affairs of the African Union (AU), Dr Thomas Bisika
President of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Chairperson of the National most Liaison Committee, Dr Olive Shisana
Vice-chancellor of North West University, Dr Theuns Eloff
Distinguished participants from African governments, universities and the various sectors of civil society

Almost 15 years ago Africa's Ministers responsible for population met in Dakar to deliberate on population, family and sustainable development. The results of their deliberations were captured in the Dakar/Ngor declaration. The declaration asserts that the prime responsibility of African governments was to improve the quality of life of the African peoples and redress their economic and social situation.

The Ministers expressed concern about the persistent high population growth rate and associated high fertility levels and related high infant, child and maternal mortality levels. They also highlighted the incidence of aids and inadequate policies for the improvement of the legal status of women in the family including its integration into the development process and ineffective programmes for children and young people and the problems of refugees and displaced persons.

Additionally, inadequate information systems and low levels of data utilisation were identified as part of the continent's challenges. The declaration recognised the need for an increased role of the public and private sectors as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in population and integrated development programmes (IDPs).

The declaration established the principle that "the provision of training and research (in population and development) are essential ingredients to effective integration of population factors in development planning". It called on African governments to "ensure that training and research in population and development in African universities and research institutions are co-ordinated and the findings together with their implications effectively disseminated and brought to the attention of all concerned" and to "strengthen regional institutes and enhance cooperation among African countries in the area of training, research and data collection". It also calls on sub-regional and regional groupings to "promote technical co-operation including the implementation of joint sub-regional programmes in the field of research, training and environmental protection".

In 2004, the Southern African Ministers' conference on population and development resolved that "Member States should encourage dialogue between population researchers and government representatives and promote collaborative research between and within countries in the region".

Chairperson, distinguished participants, the purpose of our gathering this week is to discuss the role of and emerging opportunities for, policy dialogue between governments and the scientific community, to inform future policy directions in the field of population and development and to strengthen the link between scientific research and service delivery.

In fact, I believe that our common commitment to improve the quality of life of all Africans and to achieve sustainable human development for all our peoples, is what unites the very diverse group of people who have gathered in Mafikeng this week.

The conference theme, "Population and development in Africa, research and policy dialogue for action", was deliberately formulated to avoid the temptation to have a purely abstract dialogue on methodological issues. I am pleased to note that this week's programme reflects an action orientation and therefore presents us with the challenge to translate theoretical and scientific discussions on methods of dialogue into activities that must have meaning for ordinary African women and men, young and old. The purpose that drives deliberations of the type that we intend to have must be to improve the state of Africa's population.

In this way we intend to give substance to the call in the Buenos Aires declaration of the international forum on the social science, policy nexus (IFSP) for a new approach to the social science, policy nexus. This week's conference is also an expression of the African population commission's responsibility to "encourage effective partnerships between governments and civil society organisations in carrying out activities in population and development matters" and the responsibility of the bureau of the commission to "promote intergovernmental population and development forums and activities" in Africa's regions.

The work plan of the current bureau of the commission includes an objective to specifically encourage and promote dialogue on improving mother and child health in the regions of Africa, because we regarded this theme as reflecting the convergence of Africa's current population and development challenges.

The state of mother and child health in Africa is indicative of a broader set of social conditions including poverty, illiteracy and inadequate education, gender inequality, disregard for sexual and reproductive rights, conflicts and war and poor communication and information networks. Due to environmental degradation and global climate change, poor populations, particularly women, increasingly find themselves vulnerable to natural disasters which proved to have devastating consequences for their health generally and for sexual and reproductive health services specifically. In many parts of Africa, the state of reproductive health indicators reflect an as yet unmet need for comprehensive services that will empower women to take control over decisions that affect their own bodies. According to the African Union (AU), 20 African countries had maternal mortality ratios of more than 1 000 per 100 000 live births in 2003 whilst only half had infant mortality rates of less than 100 per 1 000 live births.

When Africa's Ministers responsible for population met again in Dakar in 2004 to review the continent's progress towards achieving the objectives of the Dakar/Ngor declaration and the International Conference on population and Development (ICPD) programme of action, they found that the countries that have made progress in the provision of reproductive health services as part of comprehensive primary healthcare are the ones that have achieved lower maternal, infant and child mortality rates and lower fertility rates. However, data and estimates indicate vast differences between countries across the continent. What seems apparent though is that a clear correlation exists among the trends and patterns of individual indicators, when analysed per country. In other words, the tendency is for all the indicators to perform equally poor or well in individual countries.

Chairperson, it is notable that a number of countries have made remarkable progress in the past decade to improve the quality of life of their populations and consequently improve the status of their population and development indicators. Generally those are the same countries that have managed to achieve and maintain peace both inside their borders and in the regions where they are located and in which social development is high on the government's agenda.

A very important finding of the African Ministers' review in 2004 was that "insufficient technical and human resources are among the most prevalent constraints" in implementing the ICPD programme of action in Africa. In responding to Africa's population challenges we have to build the capacity of the continent's service providers including governments and NGOs and with specific attention to service delivery in rural areas.

We have to support governments to "ensure that national technical and managerial capacities are enhanced in advocacy, resource mobilisation mechanisms, communication/negotiation skills and monitoring and evaluation of resource mobilisation plans". Of course, human capacity has proved difficult to retain in developing countries. African countries must collaborate to find ways to not only retain our demographers and population scientists but also our health, education and welfare professionals who constitute the engine that drive population and development.

Our ability to monitor and evaluate the implementation and the impact of our programmes in a multi-sectoral manner has to be enhanced, through the development of compatible mechanisms that will allow for inter-country comparability.

Chairperson, all of this has to take place with the full participation of all actors in population and development including the scientific research community, NGOs, community-based organisations (CBOs), women and the youth. By Thursday, when our conference ends, we must have achieved consensus on how we will work together to change the lives of all Africans through partnerships at all levels that are directed at achieving the internationally agreed goals and objectives for sustainable human development.

Our human environment cannot be developed sustainably without due care for and attention to our natural environment. I trust that our deliberations this week will develop a shared commitment to dialogue that recognises the interdependency between people, their environment and development and that we locate our shared commitment to the empowerment of women therein.

Chairperson, distinguished participants, with these remarks I declare the population and development in Africa research and policy dialogue for action conference open.

Issued by: Department of Social Development
5 March 2007