In April 2010, the Youth Coalition sent a delegation to the 43rd session of the Commission on Population and Development, which had as its theme, “Health, Mortality, Morbidity and Development”. While at the meeting, Youth Coalition members worked closely with partners to lobby State representatives on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues and were able to secure the gains made at the 42nd session of the CPD, which had undertaken a 15-year review of the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action (PoA).  

Throughout the session, the YC was able to engage with discussions around the follow- up to the ICPD PoA, and will continue to do so in the coming years. For the Youth Coalition, the CPD is a key advocacy venue, as ICPD follow-up is one of the priority areas of our mandate.  

During the CPD, a panel on ‘Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Reduction’ was organized by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). With the review of global progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) this year, and MDG 5 on maternal health showing least progress of all the MDGs, this panel was timely. Youth Coalition member Neha Sood spoke on the panel about the need to invest in adolescents’ health, education and livelihood to accelerate progress on MDG 5, empower girls, eliminate pregnancy and childbirth related mortality and morbidity, and improve women’s status in societies. She also spoke about the need to engage adolescents and young people meaningfully in policy formulation, and program design, implementation and evaluation. 

In addition, the Youth Coalition and World Population Foundation (WPF) presented an oral statement to the 43rd session of the Commission on Population and Development, asking States to live up to the goals committed to in the ICPD PoA and outlining the actions needed improve the health of young women and girls. 

To read more about these and other YC activities at the CPD, please read our report: