Washington, D.C. (December 2) - In a comprehensive study released today by Population Action International (PAI) - an independent policy and research organization based in Washington, D.C. - the United States ranks 16th and receives a "C" on a list of 21 donor countries graded according to their financial and political support for international reproductive health and population programs. Leading U.S. allies the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan rank 7th, 10th and 13th, respectively. The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway top the list; Spain, Austria and Portugal occupy the last three slots.

The new PAI study, Progress and Promises: Trends in International Assistance for Reproductive Health and Population, details recent developments in international policy and funding, profiles 21 donor countries, and grades each of them on their contributions toward the goal of universal access to basic reproductive health care by 2015 - the goal agreed to by 179 nations at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. The study also addresses donors" growing focus on HIV/AIDS and the importance of linking HIV/AIDS services with other aspects of sexual and reproductive health care.

Donor countries - including the United States - agreed to provide one-third of the annual costs to implement the 20-year ICPD Programme of Action, estimated to reach US$18.5 billion in 2005. But despite the largest increase in funding ever recorded, from $1.7 billion in 2001 to $2.3 billion in 2002, a three-fold increase in funding would still be required to stay on schedule to fulfill these commitments. Even with such an increase, the cost would be less than three pennies a day per person in the world's wealthiest countries, about what it takes to buy a single movie ticket each year.

"Hundreds of millions of women in the developing world still lack access to basic reproductive h
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2-Dec-2004

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