Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen

UNFPA is delighted that Sri Lanka is moving ahead with its peace building efforts since the signing of the peace accord in 2002. We recognize that significant achievements and progress have already been made within a relatively short period of time. We are also aware that this is still a fragile process – one that needs the continued strong support and attention of the international community.

The conflict has affected all parts of the country and all communities. In particular, the suffering of women and children during the conflict, both as a direct result of war and loss of lives among their families and communities, as well as in many cases, a loss of access to the most basic social services, has been immense. Now that peace efforts are firmly underway, there are many challenges ahead of us. There is not only a need to reconstruct and rehabilitate the physical infrastructure, there is also a need to reconstruct communities and rehabilitate individuals and their families.

We in UNFPA are ready to play our part in the peace-building process, in close collaboration with all our national and international partners. Our recent involvement in post-conflict situations, such as in Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, and in Kosovo have established UNFPA as a critical partner in those situations. The focus of our work in post-conflict situations has been primarily in four areas: (i) the reestablishment of quality reproductive and health data collection and analysis; and (iv) advocacy and support for the full participation of women in peace-building efforts.

UNFPA’s special attention to the needs of women and girls reflects the strong commitment of the United Nations to the gender considerations of conflict and reconstruction, as exemplified by the Security Council Resolution 1325.

UNFPA’s partnership with the Government of Sri Lanka goes back to 1969-the year UNFPA was established. Much has changed since. Most importantly, remarkable progress has been made in reducing maternal and infant mortality, promoting safe motherhood, and advancing gender equity and equality.

Despite these achievements, some serious gaps remain in access to and quality to reproductive health services. Several population groups still have limited access to reproductive health services, such as adolescents and youth, women working in free trade zones, plantation workers as well as those living in the conflict affected areas of the North East.

In the North East, UNFPA has supported various reproductive health interventions since 1995 using different modalities of operation. Our assistance has been delivered through the national service delivery mechanisms of the Ministry of Health as well as local municipal councils and district authorities and local NGOs. Overall, and as a result of this support, reproductive health services are more widely available in the North East.

Several bilateral donors contributed to these initiatives and we take this opportunity to thank the governments of Japan, the Netherlands and Australia for their generous support for these critical programme areas.

The impact of conflicts on women and girls’ reproductive and sexual health cannot be underestimated. Women are extremely vulnerable to a whole range of abuses and injustices, including sexual violence and exploitation, during conflict situations. Their physical, psychological and emotional well-being is often severely compromised. We know from our experiences that incidence of unwanted pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases increases quite significantly during conflict situations. In addition, essential medical facilities, on which women heavily depend for their well-being, are greatly disrupted. Although information and data are incomplete, most health indicators in the North East are far worse than the average for the country. For instance, maternal mortality ratio is 80 deaths per 100,000 live births in the North East compared to 58 per 100,000 in the rest of the country; unattended home deliveries range between 19 per cent to 41 per cent in some districts in the North East compared to 4 per cent in the rest of the country; and contraceptive prevalence is estimated to be around 36 per cent while it is 70 per cent in the rest of the country. Other indicators such as maternal morbidity, malnutrition and fertility including among adolescents, are also reported to be considerably higher.

It is estimated that due to the conflict situation, female-headed households have risen to 19 per cent in the North East, of which 41 per cent are headed by widows – most of them young. Such demographic changes need to be better understood through data collection, analysis and research efforts, so that appropriate policies and programmes can be initiated, especially for the female-headed households.

And when these policies and programmes are being planned – they need to be guided by an understanding of the specific needs of women and girls who have lived under the conflict and with full recognition of their human rights, including the rights to have full and equal access to reproductive health services. Equally important is that women do participate fully in decision-making processes at every level of the post-conflict phase, since it is critical for the success of the reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement efforts.

UNFPA, as part of the UN system and Multilateral Group in Sri Lanka, supported the preparation of the Assessment of Needs in the Conflict Affected Areas. This was a participatory process involving the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as well as wide range of stakeholders on the ground to arrive at a consensus on the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs of the North East.

In addition, UNFPA undertook an in-depth review of the current situation in the areas of reproductive health, population and gender, and identified several critical gaps that need to be addressed on a priority basis. These include:

(i) Ensuring safe motherhood: provision of family planning services; prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, especially among adolescents and young people, the deployment of mobile clinics; the provision of reproductive health commodities; the training of health providers and a wide range of health promotional interventions.

(ii) There is an urgent need also to collect and analyse demographic and health information for policy-making, planning and programming, and at the same time to develop further the national capacity for survey and census taking.

(iii) Special attention needs to be given to addressing gender-based violence through incorporating care and counseling of survivors reproductive health services as well as through efforts to raise awareness of the issue.

The impact of the conflict on women is an area that calls for gender-sensitive and multi-faceted interventions that will address the whole range of social, economic, political and cultural factors that affect women’s health and well-being. UNFPA stands ready to support the Government in these efforts. We would like to take this opportunity to call on the donor community to give the peace-building process its unequivocal support and to provide the necessary means to facilitie the reconstruction and development efforts in Sri Lanka.

Thank you.