PAI Launches New Online Index of Donor Country Spending

Washington DC - September 14, 2005

As the 2005 World Summit convenes in New York to address global development issues, PAI today has launched a new online index of donor country spending and an update to its 2004 report, Progress & Promises: Trends in International Assistance for Reproductive Health and Population.

New data for 2003 illustrate that donor countries continue to fall far short of the commitments outlined at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). Though total population assistance trended upward in 2003, when adjusted for inflation those resources are at least 40 percent short of what is required from donors to achieve universal access to basic reproductive health care by 2015.

Access to reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal care and services to combat HIV/AIDS – is a central goal of the ICPD Programme of Action and has been identified as a key requirement for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This week, representatives of more than 170 countries will assess progress toward those goals. A number of donor and developing countries are expected to make strong statements in support of universal access to reproductive health, in the face of stiff resistance from the United States and some others. Barring further edits from UN member states, however, an outcomes document will be issued that includes a direct call to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015, pursuant to the ICPD Programme of Action.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.