‘Economic growth cannot be realised without investments in gender equality’

AMMAN — Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Natalia Kanem on Monday concluded  a three-day mission to Jordan, marking the end of  her first official visit to the Kingdom and the Middle East since her appointment as the fifth UNFPA executive director on October 3. 

Kanem introduced her mission to Jordan in a press conference on Monday, where the official expressed her gratitude for the Jordanian government’s “generous support to the refugees and pledge to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals.”

“During my time here, I gained a clear sense of the huge responsibility that the government is taking, and I want to thank them for all the support they have provided to those living in Jordan whether nationals or not, securing their right to be educated and sheltered and to participate in the national life,” Kanem expressed, noting that “UNFPA supports all Jordanian institutions and their commitment to gender equality, family planning and reproductive health.”

“However, there are still many challenges to address,” the official continued, stressing that Jordan is still included in the 10 per cent of countries with the lowest gender development index. 

In this regard, Kanem urged the government to address issues such as child marriage, high fertility and the increasing youth population, and to continue its commitments to reproductive health, family planning and gender equality. 

Furthermore, the official alerted that “the economic aspirations of the Jordanian national plans and targets for the 2030 agenda can not be realised without investments that address gender inequities for marginalised women,” adding that “this point applies not only to Jordan, but to all countries, as we have stated in our recent State of World Population report.”

During her three-day visit to the Kingdom, Kanem met with several government officials, including Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs Mamdouh Abbadi and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury. 

The official also visited the UNFPA-supported maternity centre at the Zaatari refugee camp. “Over 8,000 babies were born in the past six years of crisis in Syria without a single maternal death,” Kanem highlighted, noting that “this initiative clearly shows that, where investments in quality reproductive health care, including family planning and safe delivery, are secured, maternal death is almost completely avoidable.”

She then toured the UNFPA-funded Sweileh community health centre, remarking how the centre “continued its open-door policy of providing reproductive health services to the most vulnerable in the country, including refugees”.

“Investment in sexual and reproductive health as fundamental human rights is the cornerstone of preparing a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled,” Kanem concluded, urging “explicit funding and integration of these topics into the national budget”.

Earlier this year, UNFPA representatives alerted that the US decision to deny future funding to UNFPA would affect the agency’s efforts to provide support for southern Syria from Jordan and to host refugee populations in Jordan. 

“The US defunding will affect UNFPA’s efforts to provide support from Jordan across the borders to inside southern Syria, where we are providing reproductive health services and gender-based violence prevention in Daraa, Quneitra and east Ghouta governorates,” Omar Gharzeddine, media specialist at UNFPA’s headquarters in New York, told The Jordan Times.

“[The loss of funding] might also result in UNFPA running out of money to pay its essential Jordan-based humanitarian staff salaries, which would lead to a loss of jobs for Jordanians hired for humanitarian work,” added Gharzeddine.