January 23, 2003
A U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) official told a forum in Auckland, New Zealand, this week that Pacific Islanders face a serious shortage of condoms, a scarcity that could eventually contribute to a rise in the region's relatively low HIV/AIDS rate.
At a meeting of health ministers and U.N. officials on securing reproductive health supplies in the Pacific Islands, Catherine Shevlin Pierce said a U.S. move to withhold $34 million in funding from UNFPA last year, based on allegations that UNFPA indirectly supports forced abortions in China, "has affected all our programs and is compromising the reproductive health of women and men throughout developing countries." In particular, she said, the U.S. decision has worsened contraceptive shortages.
Shevlin Pierce said family planning programs have succeeded in making people aware of the importance of safe sex but that funding shortfalls, coupled with higher demand resulting from the programs' success, have made condoms and other contraceptives harder to come by. She called the disparity between supply and demand "critical."
New Zealand Health Minister Annette King said more than 40 percent of the Pacific Islands' contraceptives from 1992 to 1996 came from donors such as UNFPA. In 2000, donors met only 27 percent of the region's total estimated needs for contraceptives (Xinhua News Agency, Jan. 21).
King said that the incidence of HIV/AIDS is low in many small Pacific countries; rates are moderate in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati; high rates are found in Australia, French Polynesia, Guam and New Caledonia; and very high rates plague Hawaii. King said the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents is a major concern, as they make up more than 20 percent of the region's population (New Zealand Press Association, Jan. 21).
© 2002 by National Journal Group Inc., 1501 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of National Journal. All rights reserved.
More Information on UN Programmes, Funds and Specialized Agencies
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
