Algerian National Population Committee awarded UN Population Fund’s highest honour

[Al-khiyal]

2 May 2007 – For the first time in its 17-year history, the United Nations Population Award is being bestowed upon four laureates, two individuals and two institutions, for their contributions to work in population, health and welfare.

This year’s honourees, selected from 29 nominees from around the world, are Allen Rosenfield, a professor at Columbia University in New York; Hossein Malek Afzali, Deputy Minister for Research and Technology with the Iranian Government; the Algerian National Population Committee; and Malaysia’s National Population and Family Development Board.

The four winners were selected by Population Award Committee, administered by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), is comprised of 10 Member States, elected by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNFPA’s Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid are ex-officio members of the Committee as well.

According to information sent to the Award Committee, Dr. Rosenfield co-wrote a seminal paper on maternal death which appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet in 1985, and as a result, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Averting Maternal Death and Disability programme which supports projects in 50 countries. He has worked in matters pertaining to reproductive health, women’s health and human rights, and been involved in high-level advocacy efforts, having served on the boards of several organizations and in advisory groups for the UN Millennium Project, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), among others.

Dr. Afzali works in Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and has helped design strategies to improve health procedures, particularly adolescent health, reproductive health and family planning. In the field of reproductive health, he has engaged policymakers and religious leaders in the planning and implementation of reproductive health programmes in Iran.

The Algerian National Population Committee, established in 1996, advises the Government on formulating population policies and incorporating the population issues into social and economic development schemes. The group has also helped to introduce population as a subject to be taught in schools and sponsored key research on fertility.

The National Population and Family Development Board of Malaysia has been active since 1966, and conducts socio-demographic research and monitors population trends to create awareness among policymakers, according to information given to the Awards Committee. It focuses on family development and on the promotion of family well-being, and provides services including infertility treatment, early cancer detection screenings and special programmes for adolescents.

Each winner will each receive a diploma, a gold medal and an equal share of a monetary prize, and the Award will be presented at a ceremony in New York early next month.

Last year’s winners were Halida Hanum Akhter, a pioneering family planning doctor from Bangladesh, and the Fondation pour la Sante Reproductive e l’Education Familiale, a major reproductive health foundation in Haiti.

Four laureates awarded UN Population Fund’s highest honour

[Al-khiyal]

Dimanche 6 mai 2007 -- Prix des Nations unies en matière de population pour l’Algérie. La ministre déléguée chargée de la famille et de la condition féminine, Mme Saadia Nouara Djaafar, l’a annoncé hier à Alger, dans une déclaration à la presse en marge de la célébration de la Journée mondiale des sages-femmes. «L’Algérie a été primée en guise de reconnaissance pour les efforts consentis par l’Etat algérien en faveur de la population, que ce soit en matière de santé de manière générale ou niveau de la maternité en particulier», a souligné Mme Nouara Djaafar. Le choix de l’Algérie est basé sur plusieurs indices. Parmi ces indices, précise Mme la ministre, il y a le recul du taux de décès chez les mères et les enfants, soit 96 cas de décès chez les mères sur 100 000 naissances et 29,6 cas de décès chez les enfants sur 1 000 naissances. Par ailleurs, indique la représentante du gouvernement, l’espérance de vie, estimée actuellement à 74,6 ans, est en hausse.

L’Algérie reçoit le prix des Nations unies en matière de population

[Al-khiyal]

7 June 2007 – Four laureates – from Iran, the United States, Algeria and Malaysia – today received the United Nations Population Award at a ceremony in New York.

“Today, we celebrate outstanding contributions to the awareness of population questions or to their solutions,” Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro told participants.

“And we recognize individuals and institutions who, through their work and achievements, are at the forefront of human progress and development,” she added.

Dr. Hossein Malek Afzail of Iran, Allan Rosenfield of the United States, Le Comité National de Population of Algeria, and the National Population and Family Development Board of Malaysia shared this year’s Award.

Praising their accomplishments, Ms. Migiro noted that the awardees are “leaders not only on population issues, but also in our race to the Millennium Development Goals, especially the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger,” referring to the eight global development targets to be achieved by 2015.

For the first time in its 17-year history, the Award is being bestowed upon four laureates – selected by the Population Award Committee, which is administered by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and comprises 10 Member States elected by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – instead of two, one each in the individual and institutional categories.

Dr. Rosenfield, a Columbia University professor, co-wrote a seminal paper on maternal death and as a result, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established the Averting Maternal Death and Disability programme which supports projects in 50 countries.

Dr. Afzali works in Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and has helped design strategies to improve health procedures, particularly adolescent health, reproductive health and family planning.

In the institutional category, the Algerian National Population Committee was honoured for its advocacy for a strategic population policy in Algeria, and the National Population and Family Development Board of Malaysia has pushed for socio-demographic research and monitors population trends to create awareness among policymakers.

“Their work highlights the importance of empowering people in the most basic areas of their lives: planning or managing pregnancies, limiting unsafe abortions, practicing responsible sexual behaviour and reversing the deadly tide of AIDS,” Ms. Migiro said at the ceremony. “These are the most crucial milestones on the road to prosperity. They remain the ultimate measures of human progress.”

In another address, the Deputy Secretary-General underscored that much remains to be done to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Some progress has been made, and there are clear signs of hope,” she said yesterday in New York, in an address to the 20th annual meeting of the Academic Council on the United Nations System.

“But we still have a long way to go to fulfil the vision underpinning the Millennium Development Goals – a vision of a world with less poverty, hunger and disease; with greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants; with better educated children; with equal opportunities for women; and with a healthier environment,” she added.

She observed that Governments have already made “impressive commitments” to support the attainment of the MDGs, and she said that “concerted action now” is crucial in such areas as poverty, health, and education, among others, as this “may mean the difference between success and failure in achieving these critical targets.”

Ms. Migiro stressed that rapid progress is a definite possibility when backed by “firm commitments, sound strategies and adequate financing.”

UN award recognizes population efforts in Iran, U.S., Algeria, Malaysia

[Al-khiyal]

Samedi 9 juin 2007 -- Le Comité national de la population (CNP) est lauréat du Prix des Nations unies en matière de population pour l’année 2007. Désigné, début mai dernier, ce comité a reçu, jeudi dernier, sa distinction des mains de Mme Asha-Rose Migiro, secrétaire générale adjointe des Nations unies, a indiqué une dépêche APS en citant la mission permanente de l’Algérie à l’ONU.

C’est Mme Rachida Benkhelil, secrétaire générale du ministère de la Santé, de la Population et de la Réforme hospitalière et présidente du Comité national de la population, qui a reçu ce prix au nom du CNP lors d’une cérémonie, tenue au siège des Nations unies, à laquelle étaient présents Youcef Yousfi, ambassadeur, représentant permanent de l’Algérie auprès de l’ONU, Mme Thoraya Obeid, directrice executive du Fonds des Nations unies pour la population (Fnuap) et Anders Diden, ambassadeur de la Suède à l’ONU et président du Comité d’attribution du prix. Le Comité national de la population a partagé ce prix avec deux autres lauréats qui sont le Comité national malaisien de la population et de la famille, Allan Rosenfield de l’Université Columbia (Etats-Unis) et Hossein Malek Afzali, de l’Iran. Institué en 1981 par l’assemblée générale des Nations unies, le Prix des Nations unies pour la population est attribué chaque année à des organisations et des personnalités qui ont le plus contribué aux questions relatives à la population.

Pour cette année, 29 candidats ont présenté leurs dossiers au comité d’attribution du Prix des Nations unies en matière de population, formé de dix Etats membres, dont l’Algérie, pour les progrès réalisés dans le domaine de la population et dans celui de la santé. Les candidatures étaient présentées par des gouvernements et des organisations non gouvernementales activant notamment dans les domaines de la population, de la famille et de la santé. Selon Mme Rachida Benkhelil, le Comité national de la population qui, depuis 2002, s’est vu doté de démembrements locaux dans l’ensemble des wilayas du pays, a inscrit dans ses priorités l’adaptation des programmes de population aux spécificités locales, tout en inscrivant cette démarche dans le cadre global du développement humain.

Pour la présidente de ce comité, ce prix va constituer sans conteste un encouragement pour l’ensemble des membres de cet organisme, et par extension à tous les acteurs du programme de population, pour renforcer davantage leur action d’intégration des objectifs démographiques et de progrès social. Mme Rachida Benkhelil a, également, indiqué que ce prix vient consacrer les efforts importants consentis par l’Algérie dans le domaine de la population en l’inscrivant dans le contexte le plus large du développement durable en accord avec les impératifs économiques et les exigences de développement harmonieux de la famille et de la société. Dans ce sens, elle a ajouté que l’objectif affiché de la politique de population est d’œuvrer en faveur d’une protection accrue de la famille et d’une meilleure habilitation des femmes.

Le Comité national de la population primé