On November 14, 2012 Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin officially launched UNFPA annual global publication on issues: the State of World Population Report (SWOP) 2012: By Choice, Not By Chance: Family Planning, Human Rights and Development; the same day, the Report was launched in more than 100 countries globally.

In Uzbekistan, the SWOP report was launched on December 4 by the UNFPA Representative, Mr. Karl Kulessa with the participation of the Ministry of Health, Women’s Committee and other partners at the National Press Center in Tashkent.

The report reflects the findings and efforts of the UNFPA and its partners globally taken to address the issues of family planning and equal rights for economic development in developing countries. This year’s report focuses on “Family Planning, Human Rights and Development”.

“Nowadays, family planning is almost universally recognized as a human right. It is a central indicator of the Millennium Development Goals. Because it is a right, it is generally agreed that voluntary family planning should be available and accessible to all” said Mr. Kulessa while welcoming the participants and presenting the report for public.

According to UN statistics, about 222 million women worldwide do not have access to reliable, high quality family planning services. While contraceptive use grew rapidly between 1980 and 1990 by about 10 percentage points from 48% to 58%, growth has slowed considerably since then. In the last twenty years it grew by less than 3 percentage points to about 61%.

To meet the needs of all 222 million women who currently lack access to family planning, the 2012 State of the World Population Report based on its findings proposes the following:

· Radically increase financial support and political commitment to ensuring that rights-based family planning is available to all

· Promote family planning as a right

· Integrate family planning into broader economic and social development because it helps both.

· Eliminate economic, social, logistical, and financial obstacles to voluntary family planning

· Reduce the number of intended pregnancies and abortions by increased availability, reliability and quality for family planning supplies

· Make family planning available to the full range of users, including adolescents, unmarried and all other who need it.

· Include emergency contraception in the range of family planning supplies

· Engage men and boys in family planning, for their own benefit and support the right of women and girls to use contraception.

During his recent visit to Uzbekistan, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin emphasized the commitment of the Uzbek government to the provision of equal access of citizens to the knowledge and information on reproductive health and rights. He advocated for even more government efforts on improvement of the access of friendly services to women and youth and awareness campaigns on sexual and reproductive health.

The UNFPA has been supporting the government’s efforts to improve the welfare of citizens since 1993. Under its third country programme (2010-2015), the UNFPA continues to focus on promoting reproductive health and rights, ensuring full implementation of women’s and men’s rights, opportunities, and responsibilities, and advancing national capacities to use population data for development programmes.

The UNFPA has helped to strengthen healthcare policies and frameworks, provide essential equipment, and build the capacity of medical personnel. The latter has been achieved through training more than 10,000 healthcare providers on different aspects of reproductive health and rights.