Washington's cut will restrict UNFPA's work

The Bush administration's decision to withdraw US $34 million in funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will have a negative impact on the expansion of reproductive health activities in Central Asia, an UNFPA official has said. "We remain constrained in our programme activities due to the funding reduction," Eriko Hibi, UNFPA's deputy representative in Uzbekistan, told IRIN from the capital Tashkent on Wednesday, noting that the region was already facing a very serious reproductive health situation. "We are very disappointed to hear this news in Uzbekistan," she said. Her comments came after the US government announced on 16 July, during the 15th International Conference on AIDS in Bangkok, the withdrawal for the third year in a row of funding for UNFPA, arguing that the organisation indirectly support abortion in China. UNFPA experts estimate that the move could lead each year to two million unwanted pregnancies, 800,000 unsafe abortions and 4,700 maternal deaths, as well as 77,000 infant and child deaths. According to Hibi, the withdrawal of funds will affect the expansion of their activities in Central Asian countries as well as their support for government and NGO activities that provide reproductive health information and education to young people. She explained that with an additional US $200,000 UNFPA in Uzbekistan could have expanded activities in procuring contraceptives, providing training to make pregnancy safer and improving medical equipment in hospital. "We were expecting that with restored US contribution, UNFPA in Central Asia would have recieved at least $1 million dollars," she stated. On top of this, the spread of HIV/AIDS also remains a serious concern in the region. According to UNAIDS, some 50,000 people in Central Asia are HIV-positive, while the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the figure to be as high as 90,000. World Bank sources say the number of officially registered cases increased from 50 in 1996 to more than 8,000 in 2003. "There are a growing number of people living with HIV/AIDS [in Central Asia] and there is a lack of reproductive health [information] for young people," the UNFPA official said, stressing that the funding cut would have a direct impact on the population.