Activities
For an overview of EPWG events, click here.
In general, the EPWG undertakes a number of activities, including:
EU Policy Input
- Initiating European Parliament reports on SRHR, HIV/AIDS, gender equality and related issues.
- Tabling amendments at Committee and Plenary levels to ensure that all relevant European Parliament reports draw attention to SRHR and HIV/AIDS.
- Fostering discussions with the Commission and the Council on EU policy regarding SRHR and HIV/AIDS.
- Ensuring EU commitment to UN international agreements (e.g. ICPD, Beijing, and Millennium Development Goals).
Resource Mobilisation
- Calling on the EU to recommit funds for SRHR and the fight against HIV/AIDS in the new financial framework
- Maintaining dialogue with EU officials on the effective mobilisation and use of resources.
- Advocating for a more efficient and effective use of the European Development Fund in the context of health programmes in ACP countries.
Awareness Raising and Information Dissemination
- Launching the annual UNFPA ‘State of the World Population’ report and hosting a variety of events, as well as facilitating MEPs visits to reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS programmes in developing countries.
- Producing fact sheets, briefings and position papers and disseminating up-to-date documentation on SRHR and HIV/AIDS issues, also in cooperation with external agencies.
- Facilitating keynote presentations from expert speakers.
Secretariat
Marie Stopes International (MSI) provides Secretariat services to the EPWG. MSI provides high-quality sexual and reproductive healthcare information and services in 40 countries across the world. http://www.mariestopes.org
Examples of work carried out in the past legislature
EPWG Meetings
The EPWG meets on average four times a year and on an ad hoc basis, when necessary. European Commission and Council Secretariat officials, ACP representatives, UN agencies and SRHR and HIV/AIDS NGOs are often invited to the meetings.
Hearings and Events
In March 2008, the EPWG hosted a roundtable entitled “Abstinence: the Politics of Denials”, aimed at linking the available research on abstinence to the effects of abstinence based policies. In May, the EPWG brought together key experts in a lunch meeting entitled “Fractured Lives in Fragile Situations: is Aid Effective?”. Inputs were provided to the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, highlighting the importance of SRHR in situations of fragility. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and World AIDS Day, on 11 December, the EPWG in collaboration with Stop AIDS Alliance organised a hearing on “Increased EU leadership in promoting human rights in the global response to HIV/AIDS”. In April 2009, the EPWG hosted the launch of UNIFEM’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009, Who Answers to Women? Gender & Accountability, published half-way to the 2015 deadline for achieving the MDGs.
UNFPA State of World Population Report
Every year, the EPWG organises the launch of UNFPA’s ‘State of the World Population’ at the European Parliament. MEPs, Commission and Council officials, Embassies’ and NGOs’ representatives and other relevant actors are invited to the presentation and reception. The 2008 report, entitled “Reaching Common Ground: Culture, Gender and Human Rights”, launched in December 2008,endorses culturally sensitive approaches to development and to the promotion of human rights, in general, and women’s rights, in particular.
European Parliament Resolutions on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The EPWG played an important role in galvanising support for the adoption of two Resolutions on the MDGs, respectively, on the Role of the EU in the Achievement of the MDGs and on Maternal Mortality (MDG5). The Resolution on the Role of the EU in the Achievement of the MDGs (2007) played a key role in raising awareness of the MDG review process within the EP and was the first document adopted during the past legislature to mention SRHR and EU’s commitment to the ICPD. The Resolution on Maternal Mortality (2008) has called on the Council and Commission to reduce the differences in maternal mortality rates between industrialised and developing countries as well as to extend maternal health care services as part of primary health care.
Other activities
The EPWG, through its Bureau, writes various letters, articles and letters to key decision-makers in various European and international fora concerning topical issues of SRHR and HIV/AIDS. The EPWG also offers or provides upon request amendments, parliamentary questions, speech notes, statistics and other information to its members.
European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development (EPF)
The EPWG is a founding member of the EPF, a network of over 20 parliamentary groups around the European continent, aiming to strengthen and increase parliamentary support for resource mobilisation and creating an enabling environment for SRHR, population and development issues (www.iepfpd.org). The EPWG is regularly invited to participate in activities such as field visits to developing countries, events and seminars and to share its expertise with other parliamentary groups around Europe.
EURONGOs
The EPWG is an associate member of the European NGOs for SRHR, Population and Development (EuroNGOs), which seek to translate the commitments of the ICPD into international cooperative programmes in the field of SRH in developing countries (www.eurongos.org).
