The Honourable Pennelope Beckles, Minister of Planning and Development hosted Dr. Natalia Kanem, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UNFPA and Ms. Aurora Noguera-Ramkissoon, Assistant Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), on Thursday 23rd February, 2023. The UNFPA is the United Nation’s sexual reproductive health and rights agency which aims to end the unmet need for contraception, end preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, and end gender-based violence and harmful practices in all forms, including an end to child marriage and female genital mutilation. It promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. It does so by promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and equity and supporting the use of population data in the formulation of national policies and programmes.
Minister Beckles echoed the importance of work of the UNFPA in support of the goals of the Government’s National Development Strategy 2016-2030, (Vision 2030) specifically Theme I: Putting People First: Nurturing Our Greatest Asset. This is evidenced by the support given to initiatives of Government that are geared towards addressing issues of Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender. Furthermore, these initiatives will contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as; SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being, SDG 5: Gender Equality and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. Discussions focused on partnership to support the Central Statistical Office (CSO) by providing training and capacity building with respect to research, data, information gathering and interpretation on population and demographics. The Honourable Minister also reinforced the need for a formal review of the National Population and Development Policy of Trinidad and Tobago 2015-2021, in order to develop a revised Policy for the next five years. Dr. Kanem expressed her unwavering support to T&T to continue to eradicate gender-based violence, preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth as well as the elimination of harmful contraception and health practices.
The United Nations Population Fund has provided support to the Caribbean since 1969 and remains the largest international source of population assistance to governments, non-governmental organizations and civil society. The UNFPA provides support to T&T through its Sub-Regional Office (SRO) for the Caribbean which serves 22 countries and overseas territories in the English and Dutch-Speaking Caribbean. A branch of the SRO was established in 2007 in T&T. The work of the UNFPA in T&T focuses on:
● Promoting Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services to improve the lives of women and young people including adolescents;
● Providing information and services to prevent, care for, and treat sexually transmitted infections, including Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV);
● Designing and supporting creative policies and programmes that promote the health and inclusion of adolescents and young people;
● Strengthening national policies through the integration of evidence-based analysis on population dynamics and their links to sustainable development, SRH and rights, HIV and gender equality;
● Advancing gender equality and reproductive rights;
● Prevent violence against women and take other actions to eliminate gender-based violence;
● Facilitating training of health-care professionals and providing equipment and supplies for ante-natal, safe delivery, and post-natal care;
● Developing capacity in data collection and analysis to help governments track and analyse population trends in areas such as fertility, mortality, migration and ageing.
