National summit on population and development runs

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A national summit on population and development issues was held Monday at the State House. It has been co-organized by the parliamentary Standing committee on social policy, education, culture and science, the Ministry of Population’s Development and Social Welfare, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Permanent Representative of the UNFPA to Mongolia Ms Naomi Kitahara addressed the summit. Noting that the population and development matters are closely related to each other, Ms Kitahara underlined,"Increasing women’s power and providing people with education and health needs are basic factors of a development of individuals and balanced society. It was declared throughout the world by the International Conference on Population and Development, then a 20-year action programme was adopted in 1994." She also said the reproduction health and reproductive rights are integral parts of both human right and development. She added that the gender inequality index of Mongolia has gradually been declining since 2012, as the latest survey by the UNFPA shows. It is important now to gain some achievements in improving adequacy of reproductive health service, reducing the mortality rate of mothers, abolishing a difference of salaries of men and women and supporting political participation of women in order to reduce the gender inequality, an UNFPA expert on reproductive health programme said.