Statement on behalf of the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre from Women (ARROW)
Delivered by Sai Racherla

We align our statement with the ISSRC written statement, and thank the Chair and the CPD bureau for organising this dedicated consultation on future role and organisation of the Commission on Population and Development with CSOs.

The ICPD PoA has the strongest mandates for advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender equality, population dynamics and achieving the Agenda 2030 on sustainable development. In this regard, the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), is the only intergovernmental body with a mandate to follow-up on the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

In light of this our recommendations to the Methods of Work of the Commission are as follows:

• Uphold Commission on Population and Development (CPD) as a politically relevant space to guide Member States and all stakeholders and influence regional and national priorities on issues of population, SRHR, and Gender.
• The Commission should at all times persevere to adopt the resolutions with consensus. Since the recent trends show lack of consensus (2015, 2017, 2018), alternative methods of adoption of the resolutions should be actively sought and put in place including voting on selected paragraphs as relevant.
• The Commission should actively engage Member States from respective regions, regional and national CSOs to share national and regional experiences, at the CPD annual sessions.
• Emerging issues in relation to population and development should also be addressed on an annual basis, in addition to the annual theme.
• Actively engaging CSOs in the CPD annual sessions and commission work is crucial. This includes women, youth, local and feminist organisations, who are instrumental in supporting the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and further expanding this civic space to include marginalised groups’ representation.

Thank you.