Cuba salutes 50 years of cooperation with UNFPA

Havana, Sep 11 (ACN) A high-level panel discussion on population and development where Cuba presented its experiences and results marked the celebrations for 50 years of cooperation between the island and the United Nations Population Fund.

At the meeting, UNFPA regional director Susana Sottoli described Cuba as an international benchmark in matters of sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and the empowerment of women and young people and testified to the country's unwavering commitment to both the well-being of the Cubans and the UNFPA agenda to promote equality, diversity, non-discrimination and individual potential.

“Therefore, your celebration also honors the efforts deployed by the Cuban society and government to realize the Montevideo Consensus Program as the regional counterpart of the Program of Action of the 1994 Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo”, she stressed.

Ms. Sotolli referred to Cuban groundbreaking public policies such as the Family Code, the strategies for the prevention of violence and teenage pregnancy, and the care policy for children, adolescents and youth, all for the benefit of social development of equality and a shared future. She also praised Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s knowledge and mastery of every related program, a fact she described as very rare at that level based on her visits to other countries.