Tashkent region, Parkent district, “Mashal” children summer camp, 11 July 2017 – Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan and UNFPA (UN Population Fund) together celebrate the World Population Day 2017 to highlight global and national efforts on empowering girls and women through the full realization of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning, investing into health and education of young girls.

The theme of this year’s World Population Day is “Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations”, and it is intended to highlight the need to invest more in in the health and rights of women and couples worldwide. Achievement of universal access to sexual and reproductive health services is one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets. In addition, achievement of many of other Goals depends in part on the ability of women to exercise their reproductive right with universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning, as a key to success.

On 11 July UNFPA and Women’s Committee of Uzbekistan join hands to celebrate the World Population Day with an open-air event at one of the children’s summer camps “Mashal” of Tashkent region. The celebration features various kinds of contests and sports activities among young people, including swimming competition, quiz contest related to the World Population Day theme, healthy lifestyle and family planning issues, drawing and chess tournaments, and marathon among camp tutors and young leaders. Winners and participants of the contests got awarded with souvenirs. Participants of the event and guests also enjoyed performance prepared by children.

UNFPA Representative in Uzbekistan, Ms. Mieko Yabuta, highlights the importance of this year’s WPD theme: “We would like to use it as an opportunity to emphasize on the joint Government and UNFPA achievements in this area. The rights of women and girls to decide freely and for themselves, on whether, when and how many children to have, brings women and girls more opportunities to realize their aspiration in life by fully developing their potential, become wage earners and contribute to their family’s and country’s development. Although Uzbekistan has achieved a lot in ensuring universal access of the population to reproductive health services, including family planning, there are areas where even more can be done. This is especially true for making family planning information and services more accessible for young people.”

World Population Day is celebrated annually on 11 July. This important observation is an outgrowth of the Day of 5 Billion, which was observed on 11 July back in 1987. It was later recommended that 11 July be observed as World

Population Day. World Population Day seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, particularly in the context of overall development plans and programmes, and the need for collective actions.

UNFPA: Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential fulfilled.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is on the path to a world in which every pregnancy is desired, every birth is safe and all young people have the opportunity to realize their potential. UNFPA activities in Uzbekistan started in 1993 and to date the agency is implementing the fourth Country Program (2016-2020) in close cooperation with national partners.

For more information, please contact:

Dilora Ganieva, Phone: +998 71 28158-81 / 82, +998 71 1206899, ext. 106, ganieva@unfpa.org;